Disfellowshipped man arrested after threatening to blow himself up at Circuit Meeting
February 27th, 2005 | Posted in: , Psychological & Social Issues | Keywords: Jehovah, Watchtower Society, Italy, Disfellowshipping | 31 Comments
A disfellowshipped armed man threatened to blow himself up in a Circuit Assembly Hall in Rome Saturday where around 2,000 members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses were holding a Circuit Meeting, Italian media said.
The man barricaded himself inside a room on the first floor of the building after threatening the crowd, according to Sky’s TG24 news channel.
Police later managed to arrest him after the hall was evacuated.
Armed with a pistol and with electrical wires protruding from under his jacket, the man, identified as Angelo Cicero from a town near Catania on the southern island of Sicily, had jumped onto the stage at the Circuit Assembly Hall and threatened to blow himself up.
But after his arrest police did not find any explosives on him and his pistol was empty.
Cicero gave no reason for his threat but he had been expelled from the Witnesses last year and has tried several times to be reinstated.
He was known to the police for a number of felonies, including robbery.
