Carlo Giuliani

Carlo Giuliani was the man shot and killed by an officer of the Carabinieri on July 20, 2001 during the protests at the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy. He was 23 years old.

Giuliani was with a group of protesters attacking a vehicle full of Carabinieri. He was about to throw a fire extinguisher at the vehicle when an officer in the rear opened fire with a handgun. (note: with subsequent examination of relevant photographs, it appears that shots were fired before Giuliani would have been in position to throw the extinguisher, or look as if he were about to.) Giuliani was shot once in the face and once in the forehead about five centimeters above the bridge of his nose. He fell to the ground immediately.

The Carabinieri vehicle then backed over Giuliani's body, shifted into a forward gear and drove over him again. In certain photos, some Carabinieri on foot appear to be shocked at what they have just witnessed.

A fellow protester rushed to Giuliani's body and knelt in the widening pool of blood to check for a pulse. He shouted for a medic, and was then hit in the legs by a tear gas canister and withdrew. Riot police advanced on the dead body, refusing to allow anyone to approach it.

The Carabinieri officer who shot Carlo, and whose name is unknown at this time, has been charged with murder and has claimed self defense.

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Information distilled from various indymedia reports, first-hand descriptions, and several photo sequences.

It is probably fitting to observe that (as shown in one photograph), the Carabinieri jeep at that point had had the windows smashed in by protesters using wood planks and metal pipes. Blood was found on the inside, and the carabiniere that did the shooting was probably wounded. The driver had managed to get the vehicle stuck and separated from the rest of the police forces.

Notice also that the person that did the shooting is a carabiniere ausiliario, that's to say a draftee that elects to serve in the Carabinieri instead of the regular Army. This means that he had had very little former experience of crisis situations, riots and violence.

I can safely say that, if I had been in the same positionI would have done exactly the same, i.e. shoot. But he should not have been in that position, nor should anybody.

About Carlo Giuliani, it is difficult to say anything meaningful. I suspect that he did not expect to be shot. But this is the general impression of the whole Genova G8 fuckup: a lot of people went there thinking not "demonstration" but "party". Of course, we do stupid things when we are young. And we do stupid things when in the company of masses of excited people. Still, threatening someone who is terrified, trapped in a corner and armed is not a very smart move - regardless of your political preferences.

Giuliani's father was impressively dignified on TV, although visibly in pain for what had happened to his son. He said that Carlo "could not tolerate injustice, under any form". Grieving parents don't need to be logical - still it beats me how you go from disgust for injustice to throwing fire extinguishers on cops just like you.

Giuliani was a resident of Genova/Genoa. His father is an official with a local labor union.

He is the first demonstrator to die in Italy during a demonstration in 24 years.

Giuliani was from a comfortable background but had a criminal record for minor offences.

His parents have asked for a "simple funeral ceremony, without flags, symbols or flowers, as Carlo would have liked it".

"I've known him for years. He was an ordinary kid. Of course, he was no pacifist, but that's no reason to shoot him in the head," said Attilio Rattu, a young Italian come to mourn his friend.

"The carabiniere who killed my son fills me with a sense of great pity," Giuliano Giuliani said Saturday. "I hope that he understands that he was wrong - but that in reality it was those people who put him in that situation ... who were wrong."

The Carabineri officer was charged with Murder on Saturday said Genoa's public prosecutor.

In another story a group of arsonists attacked an office building Monday in Athens.
An anonymous telephone call to a newspaper, a group calling itself the Group of Carlo Guiliani claimed responsibility for the attack.
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The quotes and facts were taken from an various wire stories and Italian news sources.