Vatican police cadet dies in apparent suicide

Published: 2007-09-04

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A 25-year-old Vatican police cadet died from a gunshot wound to the head, the victim of an apparent suicide, the Vatican said. Alessandro Benedetti, who joined the elite Vatican gendarme corps in April, was discovered in grave condition in the bathroom of his Vatican barracks early Sept. 3. Rushed to a nearby hospital by fellow cadets, he died shortly afterward. The Vatican said Benedetti had left a note and that "the initial evidence indicates he wanted to kill himself." Vatican judicial authorities were conducting an investigation into the case. Pope Benedict XVI, who was not at the Vatican at the time of the shooting, was deeply saddened by the news, a Vatican statement said. "The Holy Father entrusts the young Alessandro to God's mercy. He is spiritually close to the Benedetti family and the members of the gendarme corps," the statement said.

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