Two 16-year-old boys were arrested today, Wednesday, on charges of beating up a 43-year-old Ghanaian clochard, Frederick Akwasi Adofo, in Pomigliano d’Arco, in the Neapolitan area. The Juvenile Prosecution charges them with murder aggravated by cruelty and futile reasons. The two were accompanied to the first reception center of the Colli Aminei, adjacent to the Juvenile Court.
The turning point
The turning point in the investigations by the carabinieri came in the morning and the images of the video surveillance cameras acquired in the area of via Principe di Piemonte were decisive, where Frederick was brutally beaten in the night between Sunday and Monday. Those arrested should live not far from the place of the attack. The motive is still unclear.
The investigations
From the outset it had been clear that Frederick’s two attackers were very young and there was speculation that at least one was under 18. One of the two is of Romanian origins although she lives in Pomigliano. In the afternoon, however, the news arrived that they are both minors: news that has aroused dismay in the city. The killing of Frederick, who was demanding cash from supermarket customers in exchange for help with the shopping cart, had sparked a wave of indignation.
The prosecutor
In the afternoon, the juvenile prosecutor, Maria de Luzenberger Milnernsheim, precisely because of the great interest aroused by the story, issued a statement: «The soldiers of the company and of the investigative unit of Castello di Cisterna have implemented a detention order issued against of two minors (both 16 years old) seriously suspected of voluntary homicide, committed with the aggravating circumstance of futile motives and cruelty. The provision is the result of an uninterrupted investigative activity, conducted by the departments operating following the death of Frederick Akwasi Adofo, a 40-year-old from Ghana, which occurred in hospital for a serious head injury and cerebral hemorrhage, after being rescued on the street in the night between Sunday and Monday . The investigations, which began immediately, focused on the acquisition and subsequent meticulous analysis of the cameras present in the area where the victim was rescued.
«Sudden and unmotivated assault»
“Just a camera installed in a commercial exercise – continues the note – filmed the violent, sudden and unmotivated aggression by minors against the victim, who was alone on the public street. The two, after hitting the man in the face, continued to kick and punch, most of which aimed at the head, when the victim was now motionless on the ground. The Carabinieri then set up a systematic collection of images imprinted on the city’s video surveillance systems.
Identify yourself through social media
The extrapolated videos made it possible to reconstruct the path of the two young attackers and obtain clearer portraits of their faces: the subsequent comparison with the multimedia contents published by the same on their social network profiles definitively allowed their identification. From the vision of the social profiles of the two boys under investigation, the presence of content that glorified violence emerged, with images of knives and retractable sticks. During the local searches carried out at the homes of the suspects, clothing useful for the investigations were found.
The praise of the mayor
The mayor, Lello Russo, praised the speed of the carabinieri in identifying the presumed perpetrators of Friederick’s murder. «I congratulate the carabinieri – he says – for their speed of intervention and for having identified the alleged perpetrators of a heinous crime that has traumatized our entire community. Now that justice takes its course. We reiterate that poor Frederick’s funeral will be at the expense of the Town.’