Bologna, July 23, 2026 – “We did everything possible and our best to prevent this person from getting hurt or hurting others. Now, beyond the enormous burden to carry throughout the investigation and trial, our greatest burden, an enormous burden, is that a person lost their life before our eyes. And we will always have to live with that.”
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The officers who intervened at Pilastro: “We are shocked”
These are the first words (reported by their lawyer) of the two officers, 23 and 28 years old, who intervened at Pilastro, a popular neighborhood in Bologna. They say they are “shocked by what happened,” the last thing in the world they would have wanted. On Sunday morning, Abderrahim Fakir, 42, stopped breathing after a containment intervention by the two police officers, who had responded to a report from citizens. When they arrived in via Svevo at 12:15 PM, they found Fakir lying on the ground, shouting disconnected phrases, seemingly asking for help. Then he got up and hit the garage shutters, after which he lay face down on a staircase. Someone shouted at him to calm down. But shortly after, when two men got out of a car, Fakir hit the hood with a punch and a fight broke out between the three.
The police officer turns on the bodycam and the intervention begins
It was at that point that the police officer turned on the bodycam and the intervention began: from some frames (the video has been online on our website since yesterday) it can be seen that the police ‘separated’ Fakir from the two citizens and threw him to the ground. Then, the containment, the subsequent check by medical personnel, the resuscitation maneuvers with which they tried to save his life. “When a climate of suspicion and distrust towards law enforcement is fueled from multiple sides – the words of their lawyer, Gabriele Bordoni – equipping oneself with means to protect oneself is undoubtedly an intelligent move. And this is what our officer did: not only did he have a bodycam with him, which he owned, but he also had the readiness to turn it on when needed –. The more I look at the images and re-listen to the audio of those moments, the more I hold the sincere conviction that the police intervention was conducted impeccably.”
Ausl’s ‘denial’ regarding the unavailability of the ambulance
Meanwhile, regarding the police’s request for an ambulance, Ausl’s ‘denial’ arrives: “It has been reported by media outlets that law enforcement requested the 118 Operations Center to send an an ambulance and that the request was not met due to the unavailability of the vehicle. The documentary evidence currently in the Company’s possession, including call recordings and Operations Center documentation, does not confirm this reconstruction,” explains Ausl.
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The case of the search of Fakir’s house breaks out
And, meanwhile, the case of the search of Fakir’s house also breaks out. In that circumstance, Fakir’s cousin (who lived with him) was asked to go with the police to be questioned. But he didn’t want to and so he allegedly refused. But the matter did not go unnoticed. “A serious matter, we will obviously report it,” says Fabio Anselmo, the victim’s family lawyer. Because, if the search was “rightly carried out,” the cousin “was instead picked up and put in the car to be taken to the police station, for no apparent reason – Anselmo emphasizes –. Not only that. We have received several reports of incongruous behavior. I repeat that the investigations (which are by the Mobile Squad) must be entrusted to another body. All of this is absurd. And nothing justifies the police remaining on that body. Here, the victim in this story, the person who died, is being blamed.”
Anselmo also said he was convinced that there had been no struggle between Fakir and others before the police stopped him.
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