Grosseto, July 2, 2024 – He was interviewed while he was still in the hospital, with a collar around his neck, telling of the great fear he had had. When, on July 11 of last year, he had been hit with a stick. What had injured him – he said – he had been a Senegalese boythen stopped by the municipal police. He, a 37-year-old from Grosseto, added that, being part of the Neighborhood Watch association and being a martial arts teacher, he would organize a defense course for citizens.
Unfortunately, that story was false. Unmasked by the images from the cameras, the man from victim found himself under investigation. And now he has pleaded guilty to a sentence of one year and 8 months in front of the judge Cecilia Balsamo. It was the municipal police officers who reconstructed what had happened around 12 between via Manetti and the beginning of the Corso. A 23-year-old boy of Senegalese origins, showed up with a stick at the top of Corso Carducci. And he tried to hit a young North African who was sitting at a table. The boy but he manages to dodge the blow and runs away. Meanwhile, the municipal police arrive and stop the 24-year-old on the crosswalk of via Manetti.
The 37-year-old is nearby and before going to the emergency room to get a report he tells the municipal police officers of having been hit from a blow to the head. He says the same thing to the doctor at Misericordia who discharges him, after having subjected him to a CAT scan, with a five-day prognosis for mild head trauma. The Senegalese is reported. Defended by the lawyer Federico Cocchi, he is accused of illegal possession of a weapon. It was the Carabinieri of the Prosecutor’s Office who unmasked the 37-year-old: the images from the cameras had captured him far from the point where the chaos had broken out. And he had not been hit. Accused of slander and ideological falsehood (defended by lawyer Luisa Renzo of Florence) has chosen to plea bargain: he will serve one year and eight months doing community service.
