Rome, Italy, Jun 9, 2020 / 13:05 pm
With police brutality in focus around the world, one priest says it is important to remember a policeman who might one day be declared a saint: Vice-Sergeant Salvo D'Acquisto, an Italian policeman who gave his life for those he had sworn to protect.
During the Second World War, Salvo D'Acquisto was a member of Italy's Carabinieri police force, and deputy commander of the rural police station of Torrimpietra, outside of Rome.
In September 1943, German soldiers were inspecting boxes of ammunition at a military base nearby. One box exploded, and two German soldiers died. German officials decided the explosion wasn't an accident. For that, they rounded up and arrested 22 people.
As the local police official, D'Acquisto did an investigation into the explosion, questioning the 22 people who had been arrested. After his interviews, he tried to explain to the Germans that the explosion was an accident, and that no one in the area was responsible.