Shocking remarks by officers on Fakir, 'He kicked the bucket,' 'What do I care?'

(ANSA) - ROME, 27 OTT - The two police officers who restrained coked-up 42-year-old Moroccan man Abderrahim Fakir in Bologna on July 19 before he died pressed down with his face to the ground subsequently made some shocking statements including "he kicked the bucket" and "what do I care", recorded on one of their body cams, prosecutors who have charged them with manslaughter said Tuesday. "He kicked the bucket, huh." "The hell do I care?" was the exchange that took place between the officers who responded on July 19 to Via Svevo in the Pilastro district of Bologna, where Abderrahim Fakir died. The shocking remarks were captured by a body cam worn by one of the officers and are cited in the introductory section of a forensic medical report—commissioned by the Bologna Public Prosecutor's Office—aimed at shedding light on the causes of Fakirs death. The death was due to extreme agitation, the high dose of cocaine he had assumed, and his prone position, experts for the prosecution against the two police officers charged with manslaughter said earlier Tuesday. The cause of Fakir's death, the experts said, is "attributable to acute respiratory failure in an individual suffering from acute cocaine intoxication (as a chronic user) and severe heart disease." Factors contributing to the death—which was "hypoxic in nature"—included psychomotor agitation and hyperthermia (resulting from acute cocaine intoxication), as well as the prone position. This is the conclusion reached by the consultants for the Bologna public prosecutors regarding the case. Furthermore, the analysis "revealed extensive traumatic injuries—specifically contusions"—which "played no role in causing the death." Fakir died after being pinned to the ground face down. His family's lawyer has said the case was like that of Riccardo Magherini, a 39-year-old man who died while being arrested by Carabinieri police in Florence in 2014. Italy was condemned to pay damages by the European Court of Human Rights over Magherini's case earlier this year. The Bologna prosecution experts further said that they had identified issues regarding the timeliness and effectiveness of the medical response but that even with a proper intervention, the chance of Fakir surviving would have been around 15%. "Ultimately, shortcomings can be identified in the conduct of both the first responders and the medical personnel who arrived subsequently; their actions did not adhere to emergency medical protocols, neither in terms of timeliness nor in the effectiveness of the procedures performed," they said. "However, even had there been a timely and correctly executed intervention, Abderrahim's chances of survival would have been approximately 15%," the experts further noted. (ANSA).
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