There is a moment, in tragedies, when words give up. And only silence remains. This is what happened yesterday evening in Massa, when an immense crowd – we are talking about twenty thousand people – crossed the streets of the center to remember Giacomo Bongiorni47 years old, died in the night between Saturday and Sunday after a violent attack.
Twenty thousand people. An impressive number, especially for a city like Massa. But the extent of participation says much more than the news: it tells of a collective wound, a pain that does not remain confined within a family but expands, involves, questions.
The procession started from a Piazza Garibaldi which was overflowing with crowds, promoted by the Diocese and the Municipality. It crossed Piazza Aranci, grazed the municipal building, gathered in front of the Cathedral, and then ended in Piazza Palma, the place where the tragedy occurred. A journey that almost seemed like a secular pilgrimage, a via dolorosa inside the city.
A sea of lit lights. Tense, composed faces. Giacomo’s mother followed the procession by car, accompanying that collective embrace closely, but with the distance that pain imposes. On the steps of the Cathedral two banners: “Non violence”, written in several languages, and “Justice for a blue-eyed hero like you”. Simple but necessary words. Because when the inexplicable happens, even language becomes essential.
Once they arrived in Piazza Palma, where many people had laid flowers on the site where Giacomo’s death occurred, the crowd stopped. No speeches, no rhetoric. Only silence. A long, shared silence. Perhaps the only possible response to a death like this.
And in the meantime, while the city gathers, justice tries to take its course. The police investigations continue unabated. At the center is a 17-year-old boy, arrested on charges of complicity in murder aggravated by frivolous motives. A young promise of Tuscan boxing. With him two adults: Ionut Alexandru Miron, 23 years old, and Eduardo Alin Carutasu, 19.
The images from the cameras tell of a brutal scene: Miron blocking Bongiorni, holding him still; Carutasu hitting him to death. The minor supports a different version, stating that it was the victim who attacked first. But there are no medical reports or obvious signs that confirm this reconstruction. After the incident, the boy reportedly returned home without saying anything.
«He kept company that was not nice», some acquaintances say today. Phrases that always arrive later, when the evil has already happened, and which sound like a bitter observation rather than an explanation.
The results of the autopsy are now awaited, while interrogations and investigations continue. But beyond the judicial developments, the most difficult question remains: how was this possible?
Massa today is a dismayed community, in shock. A city that responded with an extraordinary presence, almost as if to say that violence cannot have the last word. But also a city that will have to deal with what happened, without shortcuts.
