14-year-old arrested in the Caserta area for stabbing a classmate

Minors are once again at the centre of crime news in the Caserta area. This morning, the State Police arrested a 14-year-old accused of stabbing a classmate of the same age at a secondary school in Castel Volturno; the victim was taken to hospital with injuries to his abdomen and forearm; Yesterday, meanwhile, the Carabinieri arrested two adults, aged 34 and 20, who had beaten and stabbed a 13-year-old in the car park of the Campania Shopping Centre in Marcianise, after intervening at the request of another 13-year-old, a relative of theirs, who had been in a heated argument with the victim.

The incident in Castel Volturno took place last Monday in a first-year class at a secondary school in the town on the Domitian coast. Officers from the local police station responded following a report received by the Operations Centre, which stated that a pupil had been injured inside the school, which is, incidentally, not too far from the police station; once on the scene, the officers, led by Superintendent Donato Marano, began their investigation to piece together the sequence of events, including interviewing the classmates of the two 14-year-olds, and discovered that the incident had taken place in the classroom whilst the teacher had briefly stepped out.

The investigation revealed that the two boys, whom their classmates described as friends, had apparently started arguing over trivial matters, and in the blink of an eye the argument escalated, until one of them pulled out a switchblade knife with a 16-centimetre blade and stabbed his classmate in the abdomen and arm. The victim was then taken to Pineta Grande Hospital, where doctors admitted him and kept him under observation as a precaution. The police were then able to easily identify the alleged perpetrator: when they went to collect him from his home, he explained that he had found the knife outside the school, picked it up and taken it into the classroom, whilst insisting that he was sorry for having hurt his classmate.

The 14-year-old was eventually taken to the Colli Aminei Initial Reception Centre in Naples. Investigations are continuing to establish certain aspects of the incident, relating to the knife – which was found and seized – and also regarding the whereabouts of the teacher, who is believed to have been absent from the classroom at the time of the incident.

Meanwhile, this morning, pupils and families from the school attended by the two young people at the centre of the incident gathered outside the school, displaying a banner with a clear message: “Stop the violence”.
According to Francesco Emilio Borrelli, MP for the Green Left Alliance, “students and parents must not be left to face this situation alone, as it causes fear and distress”. Severino Nappi, deputy coordinator of the Lega in Campania, believes it is now “necessary to implement in all schools the measures strongly advocated by Minister Valditara to tackle the emergency, starting with mobile metal detectors”.