Abderrahim Fakir, a 42-year-old Moroccan man with a regular visa, died after being restrained by police in the Pilastro neighbourhood on Sunday. The incident is now drawing comparisons to previous deaths in police custody and prompting a parliamentary question.
A man died on Sunday during a police intervention in Bologna. Officers used pepper spray and then restrained him face down, tying his wrists and ankles. The incident has sparked protests and demands for a full investigation.
Abderrahim Fakir, 42, a Moroccan national residing in Italy with a regular visa, died after going on a rampage in Via Svevo, in the heart of Pilastro, Bologna. The area was previously in the headlines in 2020 over a controversial police raid on suspected drug dealers backed by League leader Matteo Salvini.
How the incident unfolded
It was late morning on Sunday when residents alerted police to a man behaving erratically in a garage on Via Svevo. Fakir, the owner of a porterage business, had travelled to Pilastro to visit relatives. A patrol car and an ambulance arrived at the scene, and officers attempted to calm him down. However, he lunged at them and kicked the patrol car several times.
Officers reportedly used pepper spray before pinning Fakir to the ground, holding his wrists behind his back with their knees in an attempt to handcuff him. A resident who witnessed the arrest from a nearby window captured the moments on video. A third person, believed to be a resident, assisted officers in restraining the man’s ankles.
A dramatic video shows Fakir screaming “enough, help!” before losing consciousness in front of officers and emergency responders on the scene. According to the footage, at least two emergency responders present did not intervene until after the now-unconscious man had already been tied at the wrists and ankles. One officer subsequently tried to check on him but received no response.
Bologna police headquarters gives its account
Bologna police headquarters issued its own reconstruction of events, stating that officers had intervened at the request of residents who reported a man in a rage. They also received assistance from residents in containing him, including after he damaged a car. The force said officers immediately requested the assistance of 118 paramedics, and that the man died after containment operations carried out in the presence of paramedics.
The Bologna Local Health Authority has ordered an internal investigation into the incident. Bologna police headquarters said officers’ body camera footage would be made immediately available to prosecutor Domenico Ambrosino.
Family and residents demand answers
Fakir’s sister has been vocal in her grief and anger since his death. “I won’t rest until my brother is avenged. I won’t rest,” she said. “We don’t know what happened, they, the police, know. We received the call that he was dead. The police handcuffed him and he died. They attacked him. They killed him and beat him, there are witnesses.”
A witness living in the same apartment building on Via Svevo described Fakir as repeatedly calling for help rather than posing a serious threat. “He was always asking for help. He didn’t do anything, he just asked for help. He was a little agitated, asking for help, help, help,” the witness said.
Residents took to the streets following the incident, chanting anti-police slogans. Tensions only eased after Fakir’s brother, who lived with him, intervened to calm the crowd. In the evening, residents of Pilastro organised a demonstration in protest at what Fakir’s relatives have called “a state assassination.”
A political hot potato
The incident has quickly become politically charged. Mayor Matteo Lepore and regional president Michele de Pascale have called for full clarity on what happened. Brothers of Italy (FdI) has defended the officers involved, with the party’s Galeazzo Bignami describing the intervention as adequate, while the Five Star Movement pushed back, arguing that a person should not die in the hands of the state.
AVS Senator Ilaria Cucchi, whose own brother Stefano Cucchi died following his arrest by Carabinieri in 2009, said the footage from Bologna raised serious concerns. She described the video as showing what appeared to be a man in a clearly confused state calling for help. He was met with force rather than assistance. She added she hoped the case would not prove comparable to those of Riccardo Magherini or Federico Aldrovandi — two previous cases of men who died during police restraint in Italy. Cucchi said she would raise the matter formally with a parliamentary question.
