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ROME, ITALY – The investigation into the alleged murder of a military police officer in Rome by two American teenagers took a new turn on Sunday.

The investigation has been widened following the leaking of a photo of one of the young Americans that was taken at a police station in Rome where the boy was sitting blindfolded.

Police confirmed Sunday the leaking of the photo is now under investigation, also the circumstances in which the youth came to be blindfolded.

The two Americans, Gabriel Natale Hjorth, 18, and Finnegan Lee Elder, 19, are accused of stabbing military police officer Mario Cerciello Rega to death.

Rega, who was 35, was buried on Monday. He had just returned to work from his honeymoon, after being married two months ago.

“The general command of the Carabinieri police strongly distances itself from the photo and the distribution of the photo of the people detained for the homicide of the Officer Mario Cerciello Rega. The provincial Carabinieri command of Rome is quickly carrying out investigations to locate who is responsible,” Rome police said in a statement released on Sunday.

Officer Rega, 35, was stabbed eight times around 2:00am local time on Friday, in the Prati neighborhood of Rome, close by the hotel where the two young American men were staying. He died two-and-a-half hours later in hospital.

The two youths who come from the San Francisco Bay Area were identified in surveillance footage and statements from witnesses. Police arrested them later on Friday at their hotel.

They allege the youths were trying to buy coacaine from a man who sold them crushed aspirin instead. As a result it is alleged the young men stole the man’s backpack.

The backpack contained the man’s phone. The man rang the phone and the boys answered. They agreed to return the backpack in exchange for 100 euro and a gram of cocaine.

The man however then went to police and explained what happened. Undercover police, one of whom was Officer Rega, then met with the two Americans under the guise of getting the backpack back.

When they revealed themselves as police officers, it is alleged the youths began assaulting the officers, both of whom were unarmed. It was during this altercation that one of the young men produced a knife and allegedly stabbed Officer Rega 8 times. The young men then fled the scene.

After being apprehended at their hotel, the men were charged with aggravated murder and attempted extortion.

They admitted to the assault of the police officer and, according to police, Elder confessed to stabbing one of the officers.

Both the Americans are 2018 graduates of Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.

“We write as a family to express our deepest condolences to the grieving family and community that loved Brigadier Cerciello Rega. We are shocked and dismayed at the events that have been reported, but have very little independent information about these events,” a spokesperson for the Elder family said in a sttatement published on Sunday.

“We plan to go to Rome as soon as the State Department assures us we will be able to see our son,” the spokesperson said.

“We are also aware of the funeral plans for Officer Rega, and wish to be respectful of his family and friends at this devastating time.”

While police are investigating the blindfolding of one of the suspects and the leaking of the photo, there is little sympathy in Rome for the Americans over the development.

“To those complaining about the blindfolding of the arrested, remember that the only victim to cry for is the man, the son, the husband who is 35 years old, a Carabinieri officer, a servant of the homeland who died in service at the hands of the people who, if guilty, deserve only life imprisonment,” Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Sunday.

Earlier the minister said in a tweet he hoped the men would be jailed for life. “Hoping that the murderers of our poor policeman will never get out of prison, I remind the do-gooders that in the United States whoever kills risks the death penalty. I’m not saying we should go that far, but life in prison (obviously working), this, yes!”he tweeted.