The news bounced this morning first through the messages of the mobile phones of the many friends and customers that Claudio had in Italy, then the confirmation of the tragedy through the Farnesina.
From the first news it seems that Claudio and Massimiliano Chiarelli had been called by the rangers to participate in an operation against poachers. Father and son had been working with local authorities for years in the fight against poaching. It seems that in the course of the action they were killed by shotgun, by mistake, by the security personnel of the reserve with whom they were collaborating. The circumstances are still to be clarified, but from very early information the park authorities have stated that our fellow citizens were not killed by poachers but by the Mana Pools park rangers.
From some sources close to the family we learn some more details about the dynamics of the tragedy: it seems that during the night the poachers killed three elephants. The authorities called Claudio Chiarelli and his son for help in identifying and arresting those responsible. Unfortunately, however, as soon as they arrived, the park rangers opened fire on father and son. Maybe they didn't understand each other about the location and mistook them for the poachers themselves.