BACKSTORY

Suspect in Rome Police Stabbing Punched Fellow Student and Caused Brain Injury in 2016: Report

Finnegan Lee Elder was reportedly arrested on suspicion of battery involving serious bodily injury for the alleged attack.

One of the suspects in the stabbing of a Rome police officer previously punched a fellow student in 2016, leaving the victim with a severe brain injury, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. Finnegan Lee Elder, 19, is said to have struck another student at a party on Oct. 29, 2016, leading the student to be hospitalized with “life-threatening injuries,” police told The Chronicle at the time. Elder turned himself in after the incident, and was suspended from the last football game of the season at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco, where he was a football player. The Chronicle reports that Elder was arrested on suspicion of battery involving serious bodily injury, and that a juvenile court found that he committed a felony offense. It is unclear what punishment Elder faced, however. Elder and Gabriel Christian Natale Hjorth, 18, both of San Francisco, are being held in jail in connection with the stabbing death of Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega after Elder allegedly stabbed him 11 times early Friday in Rome. Authorities said Elder allegedly stabbed Rega after he and another officer responded to a to a cocaine deal gone wrong. Rega was working undercover without a weapon when he was killed.