Reggio Emilia, July 19, 2026 – A young 26-year-old Nigerian was arrested in connection with the investigation into the violent brawl reported yesterday afternoon near the train station of Reggio Emilia, which escalated into a mad assault with carabinieri being surrounded while they were carrying out an identification.
Although some of those present began to threaten and shout at the carabinieri, the professionalism of the officers, supported by local police personnel and agents from the Police Headquarters, allowed them to restore calm and to take the agitated individual to the barracks, who was arrested for resistance, violence and personal injury to a public official, aggravated personal injury, and threat to a public official.
Who is the arrested
The foreigner lives in the city and is already known to the authorities. Three carabinieri were treated in hospital. During the check, the 26-year-old reacted violently, fleeing despite the use of pepper spray. But the arrest phases were exacerbated by the formation of a crowd that gathered around the intervention area, with some of them threatening the officers. The arrival of local police and agents from the Police Headquarters prevented worse outcomes. The three injured carabinieri were treated for injuries healable in about a week.
In addition to the threatening reaction of a group of citizens, directed against the carabinieri, the situation was worsened by the long wait of the injured officers in the hospital. The carabinieri entered the emergency room at 4:30 PM and left when it was already 10:30 PM.
The statement from Sim Carabinieri
“We want to praise and thank the healthcare staff of Santa Maria Nuova — declares Antonio Serpi of the Sim Carabinieri union — who perform an admirable and enormously sacrificial job every day. Our statement is not an attack on the doctors and nurses on the front line, but a denunciation of a structural problem that unfortunately keeps recurring and is no longer an isolated case. This system generates an absurd logistical short circuit that paralyzes territorial control: while the injured carabinieri wait for hours in the ward for reports, the patrols on duty are stuck in the barracks to watch over the detainee, thus diverting vital resources from the safety of our streets and slowing down mandatory communications to the judicial authority. After being attacked and beaten, the servants of the State cannot also endure the ordeal of very long waits, accumulating over 12 hours of continuous service. It is essential and urgent to define memoranda of understanding between institutions for the management of police forces injured on duty. Let it be clear: we are not asking for privileged treatment or fast lanes. Instead, we ask for an adequate organizational structure and specific procedures to ensure that care for police forces on duty does not compromise citizen safety and the continuity of territorial control. Long waits in Emergency Rooms end up penalizing the community twice: first because it is deprived of the presence of law enforcement due to the bureaucratic blockage of patrols, and second because precious operational resources are wasted on administrative waiting tasks.”
Brawl at the station, the political reaction
Inevitable then was the political reaction to what happened in the station area: “What happened on Viale IV Novembre in Reggio Emilia cannot be dismissed as mere urban tension. It is a slap in the face to the city. Three injured carabinieri and a patrol surrounded by a crowd aligned in defense of those breaking the law is not ordinary crime news. We are facing a clear picture of a deep and definitive failure, a social wound that local politics cannot hide under the carpet of good intentions,” say city councilors Giovanni Tarquini (Civic List) and Matteo Marchesini (Reggio Civica). They add: “When the Law Enforcement Forces are pushed in the middle of the street, the very idea of a civil community collapses. That same community that believed in hospitality and wanted it. And do not say that the people of Reggio have become intolerant. They are simply exhausted and scared. And their fear of crossing a square at night is not a ‘perception’ to be minimized, as these mayors have always done, including Massari and the wise men of the broad field, but a real anxiety that has forced decent citizens to change their life habits. It is urgent to change course, immediately. Today our solidarity goes to the three assaulted officers and all the Law Enforcement Forces who, risking their own safety, managed to avoid the worst. But pats on the back and routine statements are no longer enough.”
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