Italy: City where extremist shot Africans braces for protest

FILE: Schools in the city of Macerata were ordered closed on Saturday, while public transportation was halted for the afternoon protest. (Photo: melenama/Flickr)

ROME — The Italian city where a man with a neo-Nazi background shot and wounded six Africans is bracing for the possibility of violence around an anti-fascist protest march.

Schools in the city of Macerata were ordered closed on Saturday, while public transportation was halted for the afternoon protest.

City officials took the actions because of fears that far-right extremists might clash with the marchers converging on Macerata.

The suspected Italian gunman, Luca Traini, was arrested for the Feb.

3 drive-by shootings. The 28-year-old Traini was once an unsuccessful local candidate for Italy’s anti-migrant Northern League.

The shootings came days after an African man was arrested in the slaying of an 18-year-old local woman whose dismembered body was found in suitcases. Several Nigerians, including a drug dealer, are under investigation.