He is in very serious condition, in a medically induced coma. Hopes tied to a thread, increasingly thin with each passing moment. He is 56 years old, his name is Shimpei Tominaga, he is Japanese but has lived in Udine for a long time, dealing with import/export.
Friday night, in a club in the center of the Friulian town, five people – all later arrested by the flying squad – beat him. Shimpei had intervened in defense of a fleeing mansuddenly appeared in the restaurant, the «Buonissimo Kebab», where the Japanese man was eating a piadina together with two Italian friends.
The stranger was dripping blood. Shortly before, in a nearby street, he had had an argument – the reasons are to be clarified – with those five men, arrived from Veneto and from age included between 20 and 30 years old. They are twenty-year-olds Samuele Battistella, from Mareno di Piave and Daniel Wedam, from Conegliano; then Abdallah Djouamaa, 22 years old, also from Conegliano; Ivan Boklac, 29, Ukrainian resident in Pescara, like his compatriot Oleksandr Vitaliyovjch Petrov, 30.
Struck by a punch, their victim sought refuge at the «Buonissimo Kebab» asking for help, but the attackers caught up with him. According to Veneto Messenger Tominaga and the others would have tried to calm down the five, and especially the one who seemed the most agitated, determined to beat the fugitive again. “Come on, stop it. Can’t you see that he’s already hurt? Shimpei told him, intervening and pushing him into the street. The response was a “direct” to the face. Tominaga collapsed, hitting his head on the edge of the pavement and suffering multiple skull fractures.
The alarm was raised immediately and the Japanese was taken to the hospital where he is now intubated in intensive care. It took the police a short time to track down and arrest the boys, who were all tipsy. Some have previous convictions and are now accused of causing very serious injuries. There would also be video surveillance footage and cell phone footage taken by some witnesses to nail them. It remains to be understood why the five decided to reach Udine from the Treviso area. It is not excluded that they were “travellers” looking for trouble, without an exact reason.
As for Tominaga, he has lived in Italy for some time, trading furniture from Japan where his wife and son live and left immediately to join him. On Saturday evening in Udine there was another bloody incident: a 39-year-old Dominican was stabbed by a compatriot, wanted: it’s serious.
