updated to 1 August 2026

What is under investigation: ten open questions

What follows is NOT established fact. These are competing accounts and open questions, to be kept separate from the documented facts.

1. BACK-UP. It is not publicly known whether the two officers requested the support of a second patrol car, as the guidelines provide. It is the most important unanswered question.

2. THE MINUTES BETWEEN THE RESTRAINT AND THE ALARM. According to the reconstruction from the bodycam (il Resto del Carlino): about four minutes between the moment the officers get up and the words “He isn't breathing”, “His eyes are fixed”. According to the Red Cross: the volunteers approached less than a minute later, still finding vital signs, and began resuscitation after a few tens of seconds. The two versions are incompatible. The full footage and the memory of the defibrillator, seized by the prosecutor's office, will decide.

3. WHY THE RESCUERS STAYED BACK. It remains to be established who declared the restraint phase over and safe, and when: from that moment responsibility for Abderrahim Fakir's body passes from the officers to the medical staff. The Red Cross's position, the limits of a crew with no doctor and the legal framework concerning the four volunteers are in the entry devoted to them.

4. RESUSCITATION ON A BOUND PERSON. Documented by the footage. For the family's lawyer this is “intolerable” and the responsibility would lie with the officers, not the medical staff. It must be established who was supposed to remove the cable ties and why it was not done.

5. THE ORIGIN OF THE BLOOD. Footage from 25 July, filmed during the forensic examination, shows Fakir on his back with blood on his face and a patch beneath the nape of his neck. According to the officers' lawyer it came from an injury caused by scraping along the ground during the restraint; the service report states that he had head injuries sustained BEFORE the scuffle. According to the family's lawyer, the footage from before the takedown shows no visible injuries.

6. THE SPRAY. The distance from which it was sprayed and its effects remain to be established. The autopsy found slight irritation of the airways consistent with inhalation, without it being known whether this contributed to the death.

7. THE CAUSE OF DEATH. First findings on 24 July: blood in the lungs and signs of crushing of the respiratory organs. The most plausible hypothesis is a respiratory crisis culminating in asphyxia, but it has not been established what caused it, nor whether the crushing occurred during the restraint, during the resuscitation or in both phases. No major fractures, apart from a slight one to a toe. A preliminary test reportedly found cocaine: the definitive toxicology analyses will have to confirm this and establish whether it played a role. The final report is expected within ninety days. The experts appointed by the prosecutor's office, all from outside the Bologna hospital: Valentina Bugelli (forensic pathologist, Parma), Cristina Basso (pathologist, Padua), Manuela Bonizzoli (anaesthetist and intensivist, Careggi), Luca Morini (toxicologist, Pavia).

8. THE RESTRAINT TECHNIQUE. Under examination is whether it complied with the Interior Ministry guidelines. The officers' lawyer: “The restraining intervention was carried out following the protocol. There was no crushing with the knees.”

9. THE JUDICIAL PICTURE. Bologna prosecutor's office, manslaughter. The file is with prosecutors Domenico Ambrosino and Francesca Arienti, coordinated by chief prosecutor Paolo Guido. The names of the two officers and the four volunteers are in the preliminary register under Article 45-bis by virtue of the provision known as the “penal shield” — Law no. 54 of 24 April 2026, which introduced Article 335-quinquies of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is not an immunity: it does not prevent investigation nor erase any offences. The family's lawyer has asked that the investigation not be carried out by the police, citing the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

10. OTHER MINOR OPEN POINTS. The registered and operating offices of Fakir's company. Which mental health centre was treating him. His family situation: some sources report a wife who intervened by telephone from Morocco, others a separation from an Italian wife. The identity and position of the two men from the car.