VERONA – “I would have liked to have taken that stab.” Alice is in her room, in an elegant building ten minutes from the center of Verona. The name is fictional, because she is only 17 years old and because – as mom and dad say – “even now she must be protected”. It is to defend her that, on Saturday, Michele Dal Forno intervened, the 21-year-old rider who was delivering pizzas and who noticed her arguing with two minors. “I asked her if she was okay, she said yes but it was clear that she was worried,” she said. One of the boys, just 16, came up with his hands in his pockets. “He took out his knife and with one blow he cut my face.” A wound that goes from the mouth to the left ear. “Doctors say the scar will remain but surgery can do great things. I hope so…”. A fundraiser has started on the internet: in 24 hours, almost 40 thousand euros.
Upset
Meanwhile, Alice and her family are watching what is happening on the sidelines. They are shocked. «The boy who gave the stab was a school friend of mine – he explained to the police – and I had decided to end all relations. When he approached the delivery boy, whom I knew by sight, I told everyone to let it go. Then the blow started: I thought he had punched him and instead there was all that blood coming out of his face… ».
The arrest
The sixteen year old fled but the policemen searched for him for hours, until they arrested him with the compliments of the commissioner. The intervention was coordinated by the executive of the Volanti, Vanessa Pellegrino: “What that 21-year-old did is important and should be thanked: the safety of a city also passes through the civic sense of its inhabitants and the collaboration between citizens and forces of ‘order. Indifference only favors crime ».
The details
Some details remain to be reconstructed. Last year the minor had turned up with his former schoolmate; immediately the parents were worried, sensing the danger, and had sent a signal. At that point he was gone again. Until Saturday, when with his friend he presented himself in front of Alice, it is not clear with what intentions. Certainly, however, he was hiding the knife in his pocket. «My daughter is in shock – says her mother – she spends her days in bed, she doesn’t go to school, she even stopped eating. We are very worried, we try to be close to her… ».
The meeting in the future
The girl sent a message to Michele to tell him that she is very sorry for what happened to him. And even now she repeats to her parents that she would have preferred to take that stab. “He must start living again – reflects the father – and it must be a life not pervaded by terror and intimidation”. The family would like to meet the rider as soon as the waters calm down. “We will tell him directly what we think and about our pain. At this moment – continues the father – I want to know that we are in solidarity and close to his parents, deeply dismayed for what he had to undergo. These are things that shouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, this is our society: increasingly selfish. But it’s nice that there is still someone who cares about others ».
April 23, 2021 (change April 23, 2021 | 12:30)
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