Manhunt for gunman who killed four

Italian police were searching today for a fugitive gunman who shot and killed four people – including a two-and-a-half-year-old girl and a pensioner – in a working-class neighbourhood on the outskirts of Milan.

Italian news reports identified the gunman as Vito Cosco, 27, of Crotone in Calabria. He is accused of gunning down two men late Saturday and in the process, killing two bystanders: the baby girl who was shot in her mother’s arms and a 60-year-old man who had been out walking his dog.

Lt Col. Angelo Rossi, of the Milan carabinieri office, told a Milan press conference broadcast on national television that police were “actively” searching for Cosco and any accomplices.

“We are looking for the possible points of support in order to catch him and bring him to justice,” he said.

He said Cosco had opened fire on the two men, identified by the ANSA news agency as Alessio Malmassari, 29, and Raffaele de Finis, 23, because of a “personal vendetta” against them.

The two men were sitting on a low wall on the street in Rozzano, on the periphery of Milan, when Cosco drove up in a car and opened fire, news reports said. One was killed immediately, and the other tried to run away. Cosco pursued him, and the bystanders were killed as he fired.

Residents were quoted by Italian television as saying security was a major problem in the area.

Mayor Maria Rosa Malinvero told private TG5 that her office had been requesting a doubling of the size of the police force, which numbers 14, for four years.

“There was a choice to put the carabinieri in the centre of the big cities,” she said. “We are in the periphery, the periphery of the big cities, and it is the hinterland communities that remain overlooked. So the problem of security is a problem.”

Police found Cosco’s abandoned car early today, and searched his Rozzano apartment.

Prosecutor Antonio Genna said he didn’t believe Cosco had fled with his wife and two children, as police had suggested.

“We believe the killer fled alone, without his family, even though we didn’t find his wife and children at home,” Genna was quoted as saying.