Rabat – A 43-year-old Moroccan man was killed during a violent police intervention in Bologna on Sunday after officers used pepper spray and pinned him face down on the ground during an operation in the city’s Pilastro neighborhood. The horrifying incident prompted a judicial investigation and protests from residents and the victim’s family.
The man, identified as Abderrahim Fakir, had reportedly traveled to the neighborhood to visit relatives when residents called emergency services, reporting that an individual was behaving erratically in a garage area on Via Italo Svevo. Police officers and emergency medical personnel were dispatched to the scene.
According to Bologna police, Fakir damaged a police vehicle. With assistance from bystanders, officers attempted to restrain him after he became aggressive. Authorities said pepper spray was used before officers secured his wrists with restraints. Police said medical personnel from the 118 emergency service were present during the restraint and that the man later became unwell and died despite their intervention.
However, a video recorded by a resident and widely shared online captures Fakir’s final moments. In the footage, he can be heard repeatedly shouting “help” and “enough” while lying face down on the ground, with two officers on top of him, restraining him, but also preventing him from breathing. He continued pleading for help before falling silent and lying motionless before paramedics tried to intervene.
Bologna police said body camera footage from the officers involved will be handed over immediately to prosecutor Domenico Ambrosino as part of the investigation.
The Bologna Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation, while an autopsy and toxicological examinations are expected to determine the exact cause of death. The local health authority, AUSL Bologna, has also launched an internal inquiry into the incident.
Fakir’s relatives accused the police of being responsible for his death. “I won’t rest until my brother is avenged. I won’t rest,” his sister said. The family was informed that he had died after being handcuffed, only to find out later on that officers had assaulted him after video footage emerged. Residents gathered in the Pilastro neighborhood following the incident, chanting slogans against the police before Fakir’s brother asked them to remain calm.
Bologna Mayor Matteo Lepore and Emilia-Romagna Regional President Michele de Pascale expressed condolences to Fakir’s family and the local community, saying it was essential that “full light” be shed on what happened through a rapid, rigorous, and transparent investigation.
Furthermore, Lepore called on residents to join a demonstration demanding “truth and justice.” Speaking on Omnibus on La7, Lepore said institutions have a duty to establish “exactly what happened” and support the victim’s family.
“Citizens expect the institutions to be on their side, as do the victims and those conducting the investigation,” he said, adding that authorities must give Fakir’s relatives “the hope they can no longer see today, because they are shocked and, rightly, angry.”
Police unions, including MOSAP, the Federation of Police Unions, and the New Carabinieri Union, urged the public not to “draw conclusions” before investigators complete their work.
They argued that short videos circulating online do not capture the full context of the operation and called for the body camera footage, forensic evidence, and judicial findings to guide any assessment of the officers’ actions.
