Not even two months after the brutal murder of the Piedmontese researcher Davide Giri , another young man of Italian descent was the victim of yet another episode of violence in New York, where crimes have increased in a frightening way in the last two years.
Anthony D'Onofrio, 22, was stabbed to death outside a Mexican restaurant on Third Avenue.
Born in Brooklyn to a Sicilian mother and a father from the province of Latina, he drove the iconic carriages of New York to earn a living, taking tourists up and down Central Park. But his real dream was to become an airplane pilot.
From his Facebook page you can sense the strong link with Italy and the passion for its typical dishes.
"Castelforte is living with deep pain and emotional participation the untimely death of Anthony. A young life has been suddenly cut off. We are left with the pain and the commitment to live so that certain tragedies never happen again. No life can end in this way. The thought and closeness of the entire municipal administration and all fellow citizens reach the family ", wrote on Facebook the mayor of the city, Angelo Felice Pompeo, where Anthony had been a few years ago to visit some relatives.
According to the first reconstructions of the police, the young Italian American was attacked during a fight around 4 in the morning outside the Catrinas Mexican Grill restaurant. He later died at Langone Hospital in Brooklyn, where he was rushed.
19-year-old Kevin Cuatlacuatl was arrested for the murder, also guilty of injuring another 22-year-old young man in the head who is not in serious condition.
In recent times, violence and crime are rampant in New York which, according to many observers, has returned to the levels of 30 years ago, before the squeeze of Rudolph Giuliani and 11 September. It is the streets of Brooklyn, where Anthony was stabbed, the main battlefield, but there is an increase in crime in Manhattan as well.
Last year there were over 500 deaths and injuries, never so many in ten years.
The Covid pandemic, of which New York has long been the epicenter in the United States, has contributed greatly to exacerbate the situation. The shutters of shops and restaurants lowered, the theaters and cinemas closed, the empty offices, the absence of tourists and the deserted streets have made the metropolis much more dangerous.
In the coming days, President Joe Biden is planning a visit to New York to meet with new mayor Eric Adams, who promised zero tolerance against violence during the election campaign, to discuss the administration's strategy against crime. Biden's plan calls for record funding to cities and states to put more police on the streets and invest in community violence prevention programs.
(Unioneonline / vl)
