Bologna, July 20, 2026 – The morning after the Pilastro tragedy begins with a whole series of chain investigations into the death of Abderrahim Fakir. The death of the 42-year-old porter who died at the height of a police intervention on via Svevo yesterday around 12:15 is now at the center of a double investigation.
The internal investigation by the Ausl of Bologna for the intervention of the medical staff
On one side there is the Ausl of Bologna. Which has opened an internal procedure to verify the work of the 118 medical staff who intervened.
In the video showing the last moments of Abderrahim’s life, the 118 operators (who had been alerted by the police officers) are seen intervening only when the man is already on the ground unconscious. An intervention that, according to the judicial authority, requires further investigation regarding timing and methods.
Autopsy ordered
While at the same time the exact dynamics and causes of death are the top priority in the investigation opened by the Bologna prosecutor’s office, represented by prosecutor Domenico Ambrosino. An autopsy on the body has been ordered and the footage from the police officers’ bodycams has been acquired, as well as videos recorded with phones by people who witnessed the tragedy yesterday at Pilastro.
The heartbreaking screams at Pilastro
The heartbreaking screams coming from the garage area of via Svevo 6 tear through the midday cicadas’ chirping at Pilastro. The moans, the last moments of Abderrahim Fakir’s life, fade with the passing minutes with a series of increasingly faint “enough!”: while two police officers handcuff him at the height of an intervention also documented by some videos: filmed by people drawn to the area by those screams. The torn and heartbreaking cries of a 42-year-old of Moroccan origin, in Italy for 7 years, who yesterday around 12:15 apparently died of cardiac arrest during a police intervention, triggered after some residents in the area reported a man who was acting out, echo through the police headquarters.
The reconstruction of the tragedy
“He was simply asking for help. He was a bit agitated, asking ‘help, help, help’,” said a resident who witnessed the scene from his apartment window. According to what was later reported by the police headquarters, there was an initial discussion between the officers and Abderrahim, during which the police also requested the intervention of the 118 medical staff to contain the man. In this context, the police report that a car was also damaged before the officers reached the scuffle with the 42-year-old, immobilizing him on the ground and positioning themselves on top of him to block his feet with zip ties and handcuff his wrists. “Help” and “enough” are Abderrahim’s dismayed cries while the officers, helped by another resident, press his head to the ground and try to overcome his resistance to handcuff him, after also spraying him with pepper spray to calm him down.
“Abderrahim was asthmatic and had heart problems”
Heated moments, captured in a video of several minutes that shows from above the phases of the tragedy that took place on via Svevo. Now, it is the mobile squad (intervened on site with Digos and Scientific Police) that is collecting all useful elements to reconstruct the exact dynamics of the last minutes of Abderrahim Fakir‘s life. Numerous testimonies have already been acquired, as well as footage from the officers’ bodycams, which recorded the operations. The prosecutor’s office, represented by deputy prosecutor Domenico Ambrosino, is now working to carry out all necessary investigations to clarify the exact dynamics and especially the causes of the 42-year-old’s death. Abderrahim, relatives report, was asthmatic and had heart problems. The officers involved in the intervention have not yet been suspended from service, but their position is under the prosecutor’s scrutiny with a probable and imminent registration in the register of suspects, as a required act.
Abderrahim was at Pilastro “to say goodbye to a friend”
Abderrahim Fakir, born in 1983 and 43 years old to be completed in October, was at Pilastro “to say goodbye to a friend.” This is how his brother Mohamed and sister Khadija, now assisted by lawyer Carlotta Gregori, reconstructed the story. The man, born in Morocco but in Italy for seven years and legally residing, lived in Borgonuovo in the municipality of Sasso Marconi and worked in a porter company. Relatives who came to Pilastro yesterday remembered Abderrahim as “a good-natured man. He never hurt anyone and had an undignified death,” Mohamed repeated. The 42-year-old was married and had minor previous convictions for drug dealing and resistance. He was well known in Pilastro and had many friends, as testified by the many people who gathered in the garages of via Svevo, who sang prayers when the mortuary workers took Abderrahim’s body away. “They had no mercy! They had no mercy for my brother and he was killed. Now we want truth and justice,” his sister shouted in tears.
