A 32-year-old Italian man has been arrested by the Italian police over the brutal killing of a Nigerian street-seller, Alika Ogorchukwu.
Alika, a 39-year-old Italy-based Nigerian man, was attacked and beaten to death by a white man on the streets of Civitanova Marche, a city located in the Province of Macerata, in the Marche Region of Italy.
A video from the attack, which found its way to the internet last week, showed how the white man hit and choked Alika while people stood by and watched.
It was gathered that Alika was attacked by the white man because he complimented his partner’s beauty.
Confirming Alika’s death, the Nigerian Embassy in Italy says the deceased was assaulted by the Italian man on a busy road in the full glare of passersby.
In a new development, the Italian police say 32-year-old Filippo Claudio Giuseppe Ferlazzo has been detained in connection with the killing.
He was tracked down using street cameras after the attack. The police say he is being held on suspicion of murder and theft.
According to the police, the deceased was selling goods at midday Friday on the main street of Civitanova Marche, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea coast, when an Italian man grabbed a crutch the street-seller used to walk and struck him down. Footage shows him being wrestled to the ground, despite attempts to fight back.
Police chief, Matteo Luconi, told Italian news channel Sky TG24 that onlookers called police, who responded to the scene after a suspect had fled and attempted to administer aid to the victim. It was not clear if he died at the scene. He said an autopsy will determine how he died.
Luconi told Sky TG24 that the assailant lashed out after the vendor made “insistent” requests for pocket change. He added that the police were questioning witnesses and had taken into evidence videos of the attack. They said the suspect has made no statements.
Alika who was married with two children, resorted to selling goods on the street after he was hit by a car and lost his job as a laborer due to the injuries he suffered.
Daniel Amanza, who runs the ACSIM, an association for immigrants in the Marche region’s Macerata province disclosed the accident left Alika with a limp, and needing crutches.
Amanza alleged that the aggressor became infuriated when Ogorchukwu told the man’s companion she was beautiful.
Meanwhile, the wife of the deceased Nigerian man, Charity Oriachi, has called for justice for her husband. Speaking to newsmen in Italy, the bereaved wife said,
“I need justice for my husband, that is what I want. Because it is too much, the pain is too much for me.”
Rest in peace