Police kill ‘The Wolf’ after Rome shoot-out

A 10-DAY manhunt for the suspected killer of a policeman ended in bloodshed before tourists in Rome where the fugitive, nicknamed The Wolf, grabbed a Frenchwoman at gunpoint before he was fatally wounded in a shootout.

“What does it matter, I’m already dead, I’ll kill her,” Luciano Liboni yelled as police demanded he surrender outside an underground train station entrance on Saturday, according to Carabinieri paramilitary police. The woman was unharmed.

Liboni, suspected of killing a policeman on July 22, had been spotted and surrounded by police near the Circus Maximus.

“Our man fired at Liboni, the lady instinctively dropped to the ground,” Major Attilio Auricchio said. “Her husband feared for his wife’s life, but she got up right away, running toward her children.”

A few yards away, a puddle of blood stained the pavement.

On the ground was a black knapsack, which police said was Liboni’s. It contained cash which police said they suspected came from robberies, and eight pairs of eyeglasses, which investigations said Liboni kept to change his appearance in a bid to avoid capture.

A few hours after the shootout, Liboni died of head wounds at San Giovanni hospital, where he had undergone surgery, surgeon Stefano Esposito said.

Top Carabinieri officers said Liboni fired five shots from his revolver at police near the station entrance, and one of the two motorcycle police who had cornered him fired three shots at the fugitive.

A Roman woman, walking near Piazza Venezia in the heart of the Italian capital, had told police a few minutes earlier that she thought she had recognised Liboni heading toward Circus Maximus, a grassy field where the ancient Romans held chariot races.

Liboni’s photo had been shown on television almost daily since the July 22 killing of the policeman during a routine check of identity documents in a town near the Adriatic Sea.

Rome has been gripped by news of the manhunt for Liboni since July 24, when police spotted him near the city’s main train station. Then, the suspect escaped in a shootout by hijacking a car with a family inside.

After a short drive, Liboni dashed from the car and into an underground station entrance, disappearing until Saturday.

Liboni’s ability to strike and flee earned him the nickname “The Wolf”.

He had been on the run for two years. He had been wanted for other shootings, and had a record of robberies.