Bologna, July 19, 2026 – “Ouch! Stop, help… help!”. The cries and agonizing moans of Abderrahim Fakir fade with every passing minute. In a video lasting a few minutes, documenting the police intervention at the climax of which the 42-year-old Moroccan man died, the man struggles face down, while two officers who intervened “following a report of a person in agitation,” according to the police headquarters, press his face against the asphalt and sitting on top of him, struggle to handcuff him, hands and feet. This is the dramatic sequence recorded by some residents at via Italo Svevo 6, in the heart of the Pilastro district, on the outskirts of Bologna. Among the streets of that working-class and controversial suburb, too often the scene of crime and news events: the latest of which occurred yesterday shortly after 12:15 p.m.
Calls from residents, police intervention, the death of Abderrahim
An intervention started – according to investigators – from some calls from residents, reporting a man in agitation in the garage area of those public housing blocks. And ended with an officer who, after struggling to restrain Abderrahim on the ground with zip ties, handcuffs, and even the use of pepper spray, shakes him in vain after the 42-year-old stops screaming. Stops breathing. Stops living. All this happens while, in addition to the officers, a citizen also intervenes to restrain Abderrahim, with a couple of 118 emergency medical operators nearby, who intervene only when the man is unconscious (as captured in the video) and for whom the Bologna AUSL has already ordered an internal investigation to shed light on the incident.
The investigations: from witnesses to bodycams
The details of the tragedy are still unclear. Among the cries of the Pilastro community, which calls it “state murder”, and the investigations by the Bologna mobile squad, intervening with Digos and the Scientific Police, still in their early stages. The local prosecutor’s office, represented by prosecutor Domenico Ambrosino and chief prosecutor Paolo Guido, is collecting an enormous amount of evidence.
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From the acquisition of the bodycam footage worn by the officers involved in the violent episode, to the videos filmed by residents and released immediately after the tragedy. Along with the testimony of witnesses and the irreplaceable investigations necessary to clarify the dynamics and, above all, the causes of Abderrahim’s death. In this regard, an autopsy will be ordered tomorrow on the body of the 42-year-old, whom the family describes as asthmatic and with heart problems, taken away by the mortuary staff after four hours of investigations amid the prayers and cries of pain from friends and relatives of the victim.
Who is the victim
At the moment, the officers involved are not reported to be suspended from duty or subject to disciplinary measures, but their position is under review especially by the judicial authority, with a registration in the register of suspects as a procedural formality very likely in these hours, after reviewing various investigative elements. The victim was legally residing in the country, where he had lived for seven years and worked as a porter. The man had minor previous offenses, but according to witness accounts: “He was simply asking for help. He was a bit agitated, but he was saying ‘help, help, help!’”. The last moments. With zip ties on his feet and handcuffs on his wrists after an initial scuffle with the police in which, after shouting and argument, damage to a car also occurred, according to the police headquarters. Thus, finally, the 42-year-old Abderrahim Fakir died during the arrest, for whom now an entire neighborhood and community demand: “Truth” and demand: “Justice!”.
