Police arrest an Italian in the killing of a Nigerian street vendor whose brutal death on a busy road in the seaside town was watched by spectators and -there is no obvious attempt to physically intervene.

Footage of the attack has been widely circulated on Italian news sites and social media, sparking outrage as Italy heads into a parliamentary election campaign in which far-right parties have already made immigration and immigration a problem.
“The killing of Alika Ogorchukwu is a tragedy,” Enrico Letta, former prime minister and leader of the left-wing Democratic Party, wrote on Twitter on Saturday, calling the salesman who died on Friday. “Unprecedented brutality. A general lack of interest. Can’t be right.

Right-wing leader Matteo Salvini, who has made security a part of his campaign, also expressed anger at the death, saying “security has no color and … will become another right.”

Ogorchukwu, 39, was selling goods Friday on the streets of Civitanova Marche, a seaside town on the Adriatic Sea, when an assailant grabbed the vendor’s crutch and beat him, police said. The video shows the attacker wrestling the victim from behind on the side of the road while he was fighting, and eventually using his body weight to defeat Ogorchukwu.

“The assailant chased the victim, first hitting him. He knocked him to the ground, then he finished, causing death, hitting him repeatedly,” police investigator Matteo Luconi told reporters.

He later told Italian news channel Sky TG24 that viewers called the police, who responded when the suspect ran away and tried to help the victim. An autopsy will determine if the cause of death was blunt force trauma, suffocation or other causes.

Police used traffic cameras to track the attacker’s movements and arrested a man identified as Filippo Claudio Giuseppe Ferlazzo, 32. He was charged with murder and robbery for allegedly taking the victim’s phone.

Luconi said the attacker continued after the seller “insistently” demanded a change. Police are interviewing witnesses and watching video of the attack. They said the suspect did not say anything.

Ogorchukwu, who is married with two children, started selling products on the street after he was hit by a car at work and left his job as a worker because of his injuries, Daniel Amanza, who heads the ACSIM group for immigrants in said Marche region. . province of Macerata.

Amanza gave a different version of what happened, saying the assailant became angry when Ogorchukwu told the man’s girlfriend that she was beautiful.

“The compliment killed him,” Amanza told The Associated Press.

“The truth is that there are many people around. They shot a video saying ‘Stop’ but no one moved to separate them,” Amanza said.

Macerata was the site of the 2018 bombing that killed six African migrants. Luca Traini, 31, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the killing, which Italy’s highest court ruled qualified as a hate crime.

The Mayor of Civitanova Marche, Fabrizio Ciarapica, met with Nigerian community members after hundreds of people protested on Saturday.

“My belief is not only about [crime] but also about apathy,” Ciarapica told Sky. “It’s sad for the citizens.”

Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who leads his own small party, called on political leaders to “use tools” to carry out the attack. “I am afraid of the situation of this election,” he said on social media. “A father was brutally and racially murdered while passers-by took pictures without arresting the assailant. And instead of thinking about what we are becoming, politicians argue and use tools.