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Italy pursues NY soldier in '05 checkpoint killing

BY GRAHAM RAYMAN | Newsday Staff Writer

June 23, 2006

Spc. Mario Lozano has been back from his stint as a National Guardsman for months, but he is still haunted by an incident that took place on a dark road in Iraq more than a year ago.

While manning a checkpoint in Baghdad in March 2005, Lozano, 36, of Manhattan, fired on a rapidly approaching unmarked car, killing Nicola Calipari, a senior Italian intelligence official, and wounding journalist Giuliana Sgrena and the driver. Calipari was escorting Sgrena, who had just been released by kidnappers, to the airport.

The U.S. military later concluded that Lozano, a member of the Manhattan-based 69th Infantry Regiment, followed procedure. Lozano, the report said, threw a spotlight on the vehicle as it approached from about 400 feet at more than 50 mph, shouted warnings, fired warning shots and then fired on the vehicle in an effort to disable it. He did not, the report said, intend to harm anyone.

But Italian authorities did not agree with the U.S. findings, and the case has become a cause celebre.

"The version of the Pentagon is contrary of what happened that night in Baghdad," Sgrena told a television reporter. "I was there and I saw that there was no advertising, no fire, no light that tried to stop us."

Last week, Italian prosecutors said they would likely request the indictment of Lozano on charges of murder and attempted murder. Italian authorities have gone so far as to appoint a lawyer to defend the former soldier, who told reporters in Italy that Lozano was likely to be tried in absentia.

Lozano - who is believed to be living somewhere in New York City - declined an interview request, but his relatives in Manhattan and the Bronx said the news of a possible indictment has brought back painful memories.

"It's just bringing up the past, which is something he wants to forget," said his mother, Tomasita Lozano, of Manhattan. "A year in Iraq is not Disneyland, and he has this on top of that, and all for following procedures and serving [his] country."

Tomasita Lozano noted that her son now can't travel outside the United States for fear of being detained. "In a way, he is a prisoner of war," she said.

Lozano's brother Emiliano, 29, of Manhattan, a police officer assigned to the 41st Precinct in the Bronx, understands his brother's feelings.

"These are split-second decisions," said Emiliano, a former Marine. "He gave them three warnings and they didn't stop. What if it was a suicide bomber? Then he and his fellow soldiers would be dead."

This story was supplemented with wire reports.