Man Arrested for Shooting Two ANPI Members on Liberation Day Claims to Belong to Jewish BrigadeEtihan Bondi, 21, Has Admitted Firing an Air Gun at Two Partisans Association Members Near Rome's Parco Schuster on 25 April.A 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the shooting of two members of the ANPI partisan association during Rome's Liberation Day celebrations on 25 April, in an incident that has deepened an already fractious national debate about the meaning of Italy's most contested public holiday. The suspect, identified as Etihan Bondi, has admitted firing an air pistol at Rossana Gabrieli, 62, a psychologist from Aprilia, and her partner Nicola Fasciano, 66, both members of Sinistra Italiana as well as ANPI. The two were lightly injured. Bondi has stated that he belongs to the Jewish Brigade.  According to investigators, Bondi approached the victims by scooter at the end of the ANPI Liberation Day march near Parco Schuster in Rome, stopped at close range, raised the weapon with his arm extended, and fired at least four shots before fleeing. He was wearing green camouflage clothing and a dark full-face helmet.  How He Was Identified The investigation, coordinated by Rome's anti-terrorism prosecutors, accelerated rapidly through analysis of surveillance footage collected both on Via Ostiense, where the attack took place, and on the Lungotevere di Pietra Papa. From those images investigators identified the licence plate of the white Honda SH scooter used by the attacker during his escape, leading to Bondi's identification and arrest. He has been taken into custody pending a validation hearing.  Prosecutors are evaluating whether to add a charge of attempted murder to the existing charge of causing injury, given the manner of the attack and the reconstruction of events through witness testimony and video evidence. The suspected motive is the ANPI scarves the two victims were wearing at the time of the shooting. Nomad Lawyer The Context: A Liberation Day Torn Apart The attack on Gabrieli and Fasciano was the most violent episode in a Liberation Day that was marked across Italy by tension and confrontation. In Rome, the Jewish Brigade had already decided not to participate in the official commemorations, with the president of Rome's Jewish community Victor Fadlun citing both the Shabbat and a broader political discomfort with what he described as a drift in the meaning of 25 April. "In recent years, 25 April has taken a different direction. It has become a place where claims, slogans and causes that have nothing to do with the real suffering of the victims of Nazi-Fascism accumulate," Fadlun said.  In Milan, the Jewish Brigade was escorted out of the Liberation Day march by police in riot gear after pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked its path on Via Senato, chanting "out of the march" and "out with the Zionists from Milan." A group of around a hundred protesters with Palestinian flags followed the Brigade's contingent when it left the march.  Prime Minister Meloni responded to the day's events: "If these are the people who claim to defend freedom and democracy, I would say we have a problem." The claim by Bondi that he belongs to the Jewish Brigade adds a layer of complexity to an incident that is still being fully investigated. The Brigade is a historical institution with deep roots in the Italian Jewish community's contribution to the anti-Fascist resistance, and its members and representatives have not commented publicly on Bondi's claimed affiliation. Prosecutors will need to establish the nature and extent of any connection. What is not in question is that on Italy's most solemn day of democratic memory, two people were shot for wearing partisan scarves on a public street in Rome.

Etihan Bondi, 21, Has Admitted Firing an Air Gun at Two Partisans Association Members Near Rome's Parco Schuster on 25 April. A 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the shooting of two members of the ANPI partisan association during Rome's Liberation Day celebrations on 25 April, in an incident that has deepened an already fractious national debate about the meaning of Italy's most contested public holiday. The suspect, identified as Etihan Bondi, has admitted firing an air pistol at Rossana Gabrieli, 62, a psychologist from Aprilia, and her partner Nicola Fasciano, 66, both members of Sinistra Italiana as well as ANPI. The two were lightly injured. Bondi has stated that he belongs to the Jewish Brigade.  According to investigators, Bondi approached the victims by scooter at the end of the ANPI Liberation Day march near Parco Schuster in Rome, stopped at close range, raised the weapon with his arm extended, and fired at least four shots before fleeing. He was wearing green camouflage clothing and a dark full-face helmet.  The investigation, coordinated by Rome's anti-terrorism prosecutors, accelerated rapidly through analysis of surveillance footage collected both on Via Ostiense, where the attack took place, and on the Lungotevere di Pietra Papa. From those images investigators identified the licence plate of the white Honda SH scooter used by the attacker during his escape, leading to Bondi's identification and arrest. He has been taken into custody pending a validation hearing.  Prosecutors are evaluating whether to add a charge of attempted murder to the existing charge of causing injury, given the manner of the attack and the reconstruction of events through witness testimony and video evidence. The suspected motive is the ANPI scarves the two victims were wearing at the time of the shooting. The attack on Gabrieli and Fasciano was the most violent episode in a Liberation Day that was marked across Italy by tension and confrontation. In Rome, the Jewish Brigade had already decided not to participate in the official commemorations, with the president of Rome's Jewish community Victor Fadlun citing both the Shabbat and a broader political discomfort with what he described as a drift in the meaning of 25 April. "In recent years, 25 April has taken a different direction. It has become a place where claims, slogans and causes that have nothing to do with the real suffering of the victims of Nazi-Fascism accumulate," Fadlun said.  In Milan, the Jewish Brigade was escorted out of the Liberation Day march by police in riot gear after pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked its path on Via Senato, chanting "out of the march" and "out with the Zionists from Milan." A group of around a hundred protesters with Palestinian flags followed the Brigade's contingent when it left the march.  Prime Minister Meloni responded to the day's events: "If these are the people who claim to defend freedom and democracy, I would say we have a problem." The claim by Bondi that he belongs to the Jewish Brigade adds a layer of complexity to an incident that is still being fully investigated. The Brigade is a historical institution with deep roots in the Italian Jewish community's contribution to the anti-Fascist resistance, and its members and representatives have not commented publicly on Bondi's claimed affiliation. Prosecutors will need to establish the nature and extent of any connection. What is not in question is that on Italy's most solemn day of democratic memory, two people were shot for wearing partisan scarves on a public street in Rome.