A 22-year-old Bocconi student is at risk of being disabled after being brutally beaten and stabbed by a gang of 17- and 18-year-olds, barely out of their teens, who bragged about the beating on social media in the days that followed. Police investigations led to their identification and, just over a month after the attack, which occurred not far from Milan's nightlife district, their arrest. The brutal incident occurred on the night of October 12th near Corso Como. The 22-year-old was alone, after a night of partying and, perhaps, a few too many beers. The gang approached him, asked him for a cigarette, and then asked him to change some money.
When he pulls out some banknotes, one of the five men snatches 50 euros from his hands. The Bocconi graduate chases them, and the group reacts. Violently. First the blows, kicks, and punches, then the stabs with a switchblade. The first strikes superficially, near the buttock, the second punctures a lung and damages the spinal cord. During the investigation, officers from the Garibaldi-Venice Police Station acquire images from security cameras in the area: the victim is lying on the ground, helpless, while the attackers—only one apparently merely watched—attack him under the arcades of the Una Hotel on Via Rosales. Shortly thereafter, a couple of young men notice the bleeding victim on the ground and raise the alarm.
Taken to the hospital, where he nearly died several times from hemorrhagic shock after losing four liters of blood, the 22-year-old underwent several surgeries, fighting for his life while the gang, in chat rooms and online, boasted about what they had done to him, even going so far as to imagine "unplugging all the cables" because "maybe he'll die." On TikTok, one of the attackers even bragged under a video of city councilor and Northern League MEP Silvia Sardone, who, in the chamber of Palazzo Marino, denounced the insecurity in Milan following the six stabbings reported in the city over the weekend of October 25-26.
"They haven't discovered the 7th yet." In the homes of the arrested youths, police investigators found clothing and knives consistent with the attack. The five, three 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds, were arrested this morning on precautionary custody orders issued by the Milan investigating judge and the investigating judge of the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office on charges of attempted aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. They were taken to the Beccaria juvenile prison and San Vittore prison.
