A disagreement that had occurred a few days earlier was the motive for the stabbing on Saturday evening on Via Sicilia, in the Marina district . It was just after 8 pm when the two young men met in the heart of Cagliari's nightlife: an argument, a few pushes, and slaps followed, until one of them pulled a 30-centimeter kitchen knife from his pocket .
A fifteen-year-old from Quartucciu, stabbed three times in the abdomen and back, is hospitalized at Brotzu Hospital in serious but non-life-threatening condition. Another fifteen-year-old, from Cagliari, is being held at the Juvenile Reception Center in Quartucciu , under investigation by the Juvenile Court Prosecutor's Office for attempted murder.
"Now I'm recovering because I can see him well. A little sore, of course, with the stitches, but he's stable," says the victim's mother after a night of terror. "The two knew each other by sight, but they weren't friends. They had teased each other before, but never got physical. I don't know why it got so bad. Even my son told me, 'Mom, I don't know. I just reacted .'" The woman thinks it was an "organized ambush."
Meanwhile , the possibility of a "red zone" is gaining traction in the Marina district . "I will discuss this with the prefect," Mayor Massimo Zedda declared, emphasizing that "the minor who committed the stabbing was immediately arrested," which "testifies to the presence and ability of law enforcement to intervene promptly."
The city, especially the parents of adolescents, are now wondering what's happening to their kids. Virginia Priolo, a psychologist and family mediator from Cagliari, links the distress to Covid, to the "everyone at home" it entailed: "It has left a negative mark on adolescents' emotional management and social interaction, isolated just as they were forming a social identity. From this," Priolo adds, "arises a difficulty in emotional self-regulation. A great deal of prevention and cultural work is needed, involving families and schools as well, if we want to change the current course of events. And no, it's not easy."
