Italy - Beau Solomon, 19, UW student, Rome, 30 June 2016 *Arrest*

[Coquette]

And more from Italy.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/201...s-3_a448f1fb-3f6d-423e-928e-e2ee981c5516.html

- Beau Solomon, the American student found dead in the Tiber Monday, was drunk and staggering when two other people accompanied him to the embankment near Ponte Garibaldi and took his credit card early on Friday, witnesses have told police.

 

[poppygirl]

Italy has been experiencing immigration issues for a number of years. It is a favoured destination for Romanians because of the similarity between Romanian and Italian, and has attracted a lot of Roma from Romania and other parts of eastern Europe. The Roma have become a major problem on the streets because of street crime including theft and aggressive begging, and especially using their children to carry out crimes because of the problems the authorities have in arresting and dealing with children. The problem is so acute that many cities and parts of cities are in danger of becoming no-go for tourists because of the hassle caused.

This is of course without the massive influx of migrants from Africa through Libya. There is a tendency for these migrants to disappear from hostels where they are lodged and go awol and end up living under the radar. Many are involved in various forms of street trading and petty crime.

It's worth noting that one fairly legitimate job which migrants seem to fall into is taxi driving, which of course gives them access to a vehicle.

I was in Spain recently and they have the same issues...most of Europe actually. It was one of the underlying reasons for the UKs recent vote to leave the EU.


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[Coquette]

I've translated some of this article from Italian to English. Here is the most important bit.

http://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2...a_ucciso_a_roma_fermato-143457407/?refresh_ce


"A night of violence and blood. Before being hustled into the Tiber by homeless Massimo Galioto, Beau Solomon was robbed of credit from two people who had convinced him to follow them on the quay of the River below Ponte Garibaldi. It was about 1 am, and that stretch of river is in the heart of Rome. Some witnesses have reported to the police that the American guy was visibly drunk. The two people approached him to rob him and, in heist, Solomon would have been left alone on the dock, tottering and helpless, until they came across Galioto. At that point a fight breaks out between them and what happens next is the focal point of the investigation. According to investigators, then, there are no links between the perpetrators of the theft of the credit card used during the following days in Milan, and the 40-year-old romano stopped by the police for murder.

" That guy was chasing of Moroccans, I think. Maybe he had stolen his wallet. Collided with Max and they started arguing, "so his partner defends Massimo Galioto, interviewed by RaiUno. "You gave the kid Up there was a jostling, I gave it another, there was a maximum. And then the boy fell into the water. If you run? No, Max is not escaped. He stayed there ".

-----------------

The girlfriend of the homeless man arrested insists that her boyfriend fought with Beau and that he just fell into the water. Rather than calling the police to alert them that he'd fallen in, he then went back to sleep in their encampment.

 

[ninij9]

And more from Italy.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/201...s-3_a448f1fb-3f6d-423e-928e-e2ee981c5516.html

It's sad that it seems there were witnesses to these incidents yet no one intervened when he was pushed in the river. His life could have been saved. This could have been a survivable encounter.

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[MelmothTheLost]

So he not only looked strongly uilt, he was a former football player. Something tells me that there might be more to this than being over powered and killed by a run of the mill homeless guy. Then factor in that most homeless people do not have cars and though they have use of cash, have little use for credit cards.

If he was as physically big as is implied by his being a football player, I agree that even if squiffy he wouldn't be an easy takedown for a single assailant. A group of attackers does seem more likely.

Excellent point regarding the possibility of the attacker being a migrant (thus the technically homeless label) with access to a car that is used as an unregistered taxi.

There are plenty of east Europeans in Italy who would have driven there in whatever vehicle they used back home. Here in the English Midlands I see loads of cars with Polish licence plates and more than a few with Romanian, Hungarian and Latvian plates. It wouldn't surprise me to find that at least some migrants are effectively living in their vehicles.

Also I was not necessarily thinking of unregistered taxis. It's a fairly easy job to get for people willing to work long hours for relatively little reward, and I can imagine that many taxi firms would be happy to hire migrants as drivers for that reason. I can also imagine that some blood being found in a taxi would not unduly attract attention since it could very plausibly be explained away as a passenger's nosebleed or from his being involved in a fight.

The fact that the victim was not only killed, but then dumped in a river does not seem to be Roma style. Rather, I could see them noticing that he was intoxicated and thus as easy mark for being pick pocketed, or even being assaulted and robbed. Deliberate murder, however, does not seem to be their usual operating pattern. Rather, if they had killed the victim, it would have been accidental and probably not immediately noticed (attacker intended to only club the victim unconcious, but later realized he had killed him and then simply fled).

As it happens, I agree. Violent crime does not seem to be a Roma thing as they seem to be more inclined to crimes involving dishonesty. It's plausible that a group of them could have jostled Beau, knocking him to the ground and causing the head injury. But would it be enough to kill him?

 

[Cryptic]

I've translated some of this article from Italian to English. Here is the most important bit.

http://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2...a_ucciso_a_roma_fermato-143457407/?refresh_ce

Thanks for the link and the translation. I cant seem to picture what happened though:

- Did the two Moroccans ("refugees"?) rob the victim independent of the other homeless person?
- Did the victim mistakenly blame the Italian homeless person, thus causing another fight ending with him being thrown into the river?

This does not seem likely, and the article uses the plural "they" and implies that the victim was killed by more than one person. Perhaps this scenario is what happened:

- Ethnic Italian homeless guy and his girlfriend are working with two "refugees" of the criminal persuasion.

- Their goal is to lure the intoxicated victims to a more isolated area where he can be robbed, but not killed. My guess is that they had worked as a team before and that one of the two ethnic Italians (assuming GF is Italian as well) was the lure. The two younger (?) Morrocans are the muscle. Maybe one of the group acts as a 'Good Samaritan' by calling a taxi for the victim. The lure then gets in the cab as well.

- Things seem to be going smoothly for the criminals as they bring the victim to the pier. But, then things get complicated. The victim sobers up a little, realizes that he has been robbed and fights back. The criminals beat him up to complete the robbery, then panic and push him off the pier and into the river (probably still not with the absolute intention of killing him). The victim then drowns.

- The group then sells the credit card to a fence who, thinking it is just another stolen credit card, uses it for some purchases. When the police show up asking questions about a homicide, he very quickly tells them whom he bought the card from.

Also I was not necessarily thinking of unregistered taxis. It's a fairly easy job to get for people willing to work long hours for relatively little reward, and I can imagine that many taxi firms would be happy to hire migrants as drivers for that reason. I can also imagine that some blood being found in a taxi would not unduly attract attention since it could very plausibly be explained away as a passenger's nosebleed or from his being involved in a fight.

Thanks for the good observations about migrants as cab drivers and living from their cars. Here in the US, I get the impression that illegal or semi legal immigrants working as cab drivers is rarer. Rahter, most are legal immigrants with confirmed identities etc. This might be due to government pressure against cab companies following 9-11.

 

[Hatfield]

Thanks for the link and the translation. I cant seem to picture what happened though:

- Did the two Moroccans ("refugees"?) rob the victim independent of the other homeless person?
- Did the victim mistakenly blame the Italian homeless person, thus causing another fight ending with him being thrown into the river?

This does not seem likely, and the article uses the plural "they" and implies that the victim was killed by more than one person. Perhaps this scenario is what happened:

- Ethnic Italian homeless guy and his girlfriend are working with two "refugees" of the criminal persuasion.

- Their goal is to lure the intoxicated victims to a more isolated area where he can be robbed, but not killed. My guess is that they had worked as a team before and that one of the two ethnic Italians (assuming GF is Italian as well) was the lure. The two younger (?) Morrocans are the muscle. Perhaps it involves one of the group acting as a Good Samaritan by calling a "taxi" for the victim. The lure then gets in the cab as well.

- Things seem to be going smoothly for the criminals as they bring the victim to the pier. But, then things get complicated. The victim sobers up a little, realizes that he has been robbed and fights back. The criminals beat him up to complete the robbery, then panic and push him off the pier and into the river (probably still not with the absolute intention of killing him). The victim then drowns.

- The group then sells the credit card to a fence who, thinking it is just another stolen credit card, uses it for some purchases. When the police show up asking questions about a homicide, he very quickly tells them whom he bought the card from.


Thanks for the good observations about migrants as cab drivers and living from their cars. Here in the US, I get the impression that illegal or semi legal immigrants working as cab drivers is rarer. Rahter, most are legal immigrants with confirmed identities etc. This might be due to government pressure against cab companies following 9-11.

I agree. There is some racket going on and I don't believe some of what was being told by the person claiming he just pushed him and he fell in. It was probably more like he pushed him on purpose to go in the river.

You don't just go home and go to sleep if you are innocent.

The number of incidents of this sort of thing happening is too much. One of the articles back said LE finds purses and things floating on sides of river downstream.

I would be curious to know how many missing people go missing from those river areas.

This is terrible and I think the only way young people can combat this type of thing is to go in large groups if they want to go out to clubs and make sure they all never leave alone. Ever.

This sounds like a planned setup area in which you are lucky if just mugged.
When traveling to certain places tourists stand out like a neon sign. Easy targets for criminals looking to rob people visiting. Knowing they usually have to have money to travel.

 

[Ray_of_hope]

What a nightmare! My son studied abroad in Spain and there was only one time that he was missing. He thought he was adult enough to go to a pub with new hostel acquaintances. A hostel in Amsterdam located him and put signs everywhere in his room to call home. He said they even left a post-it stuck to his forehead. Not a proud moment... Teens do some crazy things when alone and feel grown up. And with the drinking age being younger, they make some foolish decisions due to alcohol naivety. I wish Beau had been with a group. I am deeply saddened and in no way blaming him. We all took risks growing up but were lucky enough to survive. My deepest sympathies to his family and loved ones.

 

[Hatfield]

This reminds me of Shangai kidnappings many years ago to get ship laborers. Portland and San Francisco had trap doors in their bars and crazy stories like that. Except today it is just money.

It sounds like the racket could be pretty large and organized or it could be decentralized and just happens by different groups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghaiing

 

[Ray_of_hope]

I agree. There is some racket going on and I don't believe some of what was being told by the person claiming he just pushed him and he fell in. It was probably more like he pushed him on purpose to go in the river.

You don't just go home and go to sleep if you are innocent.

The number of incidents of this sort of thing happening is too much. One of the articles back said LE finds purses and things floating on sides of river downstream.

I would be curious to know how many missing people go missing from those river areas.

This is terrible and I think the only way young people can combat this type of thing is to go in large groups if they want to go out to clubs and make sure they all never leave alone. Ever.

This sounds like a planned setup area in which you are lucky if just mugged.
When traveling to certain places tourists stand out like a neon sign. Easy targets for criminals looking to rob people visiting. Knowing they usually have to have money to travel.

You make many excellent points, Hatfield! ITA.

 

[Cryptic]

I would be curious to know how many missing people go missing from those river areas.

My guess is that not very many. Murders seem to be rarer in Europe and nothing brings unwanted police attention faster than in a country with few murders than actually killing a victim does. Instead, I think the site is just well known amongst local criminals as being a good place to riffle though and toss stolen purses and stolen packages (they all literally go down river), make street level drug buys, sell "found items" and in some cases, lure a lone intoxicated tourist to in order to be be mugged, but not necessarily killed.

I When traveling to certain places tourists stand out like a neon sign. Easy targets for criminals looking to rob people visiting. Knowing they usually have to have money to travel.

I agree completely. I have a feeling that this group specialized in robbing western foreigners in and around a night club area. As you stated, they not only have relatively large amounts of money, but also usually have sufficient means to accept some theft as a "lesson learned" and are therefore less likely to report the crime to the police in a country where they are not citizens and do not speak the language.

 

[Elainera]

Poor Beau! May he rest in peace, and may his family get all their questions answered so they can start to grieve and eventually heal. What a nightmare for them

I have only been reading here so far and want to thank all members here for their intelligent and thoughtful posts!

The questions that are in my mind right now are,

- how did Beau get from the bar where he was last seen by his friends to the bridge where the alleged fight occurred? How far from the bar is this bridge? Under what pretext was he lured there by the attackers? Is this the same bridge the arrested man (Massimo Galioto) sleeps under in a tent?

- who told police that Massimo Galioto was the one responsible for Beau ending up in the river? Has he been arrested because of witness accounts?

I hope they will release the autopsy results. Was Beau still alive when he went in the river (did he drown)? Or was he killed before and was dumped dead in the river (no water in the lungs)? The autopsy will be important to establish whether this could have been an unintentional push into the river, in which case he would have been alive when entering the water, or not.

 

[Ray_of_hope]

On the CBS news tonight, the reporter spoke with the female bartender in the establishment that Beau was in prior to his death. She stated that Beau and the people he was with were very polite and well mannered and that Beau paid his bill and left.

 

[savagewoman]

Poor Beau! May he rest in peace, and may his family get all their questions answered so they can start to grieve and eventually heal. What a nightmare for them

I have only been reading here so far and want to thank all members here for their intelligent and thoughtful posts!

The questions that are in my mind right now are,

- how did Beau get from the bar where he was last seen by his friends to the bridge where the alleged fight occurred? How far from the bar is this bridge? Under what pretext was he lured there by the attackers? Is this the same bridge the arrested man (Massimo Galioto) sleeps under in a tent?

- who told police that Massimo Galioto was the one responsible for Beau ending up in the river? Has he been arrested because of witness accounts?

I hope they will release the autopsy results. Was Beau still alive when he went in the river (did he drown)? Or was he killed before and was dumped dead in the river (no water in the lungs)? The autopsy will be important to establish whether this could have been an unintentional push into the river, in which case he would have been alive when entering the water, or not.

great questions that I hope will be answered soon. right now this is all new what the police released. It seems like there might be 2 sets: thieves that took credit cards to Milan and possibly lured him away from bar (about 4 hours by car where they were used) and murder (arrested today and witnessed by 2 people).

I'm still in shock because I have 2 sons in college. many of their friends have studied abroad already....the schools highly suggest it. I was talking to one kid that attends Madison and it seems like everyone does it and it's almost forced. the fact that BS actually studied the language was a huge advantage since most do not know anything except english.

 

[cuffem]

I was in Spain recently and they have the same issues...most of Europe actually. It was one of the underlying reasons for the UKs recent vote to leave the EU.


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As with my recent visit to Paris and my trips to Belgium. Paris is no longer the place you dream of going,it was a nightmare and I dread having to return on my next trip from Belgium.
I want to mention something I see alot while in Europe is that young Americans are not used to the high alcohol content in the beer and tend to over drink and then it is too late,they can not even walk or know where they are.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I was in Spain recently and they have the same issues...most of Europe actually.

Spain has had a resident Roma population, especially in Andalusia, for centuries, but has certainly seen a recent influx of both Romanians and east European Roma. The street crime problem is such that it's seriously affecting the tourist trade in Barcelona and maybe other tourist cities as well.

It was one of the underlying reasons for the UKs recent vote to leave the EU.

Yes and no. Immigration was mentioned as 2nd or 3rd most important reasons for out votes by most people (sovereignty was generally named as the most important). The sheer numbers who have come in during the past 20 years is huge - around 800,000 Poles, 400,000 French and so on, but a significant issue for many people has been the massive increase in crime, primarily due to immigration from eastern Europe and the Baltic states, and the huge burden created on the fabric of society such as schools, housing, medical services and so on. There have been a considerable number of violent crimes, especially rapes and murders, committed by EU immigrants which we cannot address without being able to completely control our borders. At present we can imprison a Latvian or Pole for rape but it is virtually impossible to deport him after he has served his sentence.

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Beau's parents met/prayed with the Pope

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...dent-dead-River-Tiber-days-arriving-Rome.html

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

From above link:

"Solomon, who was a keen American footballer, gave chase to the gang who ran down an embankment towards the River Tiber near the Garibaldi bridge."

"Italian media said CCTV footage covering the riverbank shows Solomon getting into a scuffle with homeless man Massimo Galioto, who has an encampment underneath the bridge."

"The footage apparently shows the moment Solomon was pushed into the river."

"His body was recovered almost three miles downstream on Monday near the Marconi Bridge."

 

[Ray_of_hope]

great questions that I hope will be answered soon. right now this is all new what the police released. It seems like there might be 2 sets: thieves that took credit cards to Milan and possibly lured him away from bar (about 4 hours by car where they were used) and murder (arrested today and witnessed by 2 people).

I'm still in shock because I have 2 sons in college. many of their friends have studied abroad already....the schools highly suggest it. I was talking to one kid that attends Madison and it seems like everyone does it and it's almost forced. the fact that BS actually studied the language was a huge advantage since most do not know anything except english.

Probably one of the best things my son ever did. He traveled everywhere while in Spain and learned so much about other cultures, people, ways of life, healthy food and self reliance. Yes, there are some shaky moments, esp for parents and certainly I didn't experience what Beau's family did or I might have a different opinion.
But probably the wisest decision my DH made was to obtain passports (ours had long since expired) before my son left so in the event of an emergency, we could get right over. I read somewhere on this thread that Beau's family didn't have passports or they were expired which slowed their immediate travel significantly. So the best advice I could offer anyone is to have all family members passports updated in the event immediate travel is required. But I pray that they'll never have to be used.

 

[Ray_of_hope]

2 years ago, John Durkin 21, a study abroad student from NH, USA was found in a train tunnel in Rome. He had been hit by a train. I wonder how he got into that tunnel. He too, was alone after leaving a bar in Rome. There was a 4 hour window from the time he left the bar until seen on security video before the train hit him. He appeared intoxicated and without wounds. But he had no ID on him!! He had been with a group and stayed later.
http://www.pressherald.com/2014/02/...john_durkin_walking_on_train_tracks_in_rome_/

"Italian authorities say Durkin was struck by a train in a railroad tunnel between St. Peter’s and Trastevere train stations. The tunnel is about two miles from the bar, Sloppy Sam’s, in the opposite direction from his dormitory.

The area where the bar is located, the Piazza Campo dei Fiori, has open air markets during the day and is a popular nightspot for foreign tourists. It also has seen incidents of violence in recent years, according to press reports."

snipped

"Sloppy Sam’s describes itself as “the only dedicated American bar in Rome.” It has English-speaking staff and shows American sporting events on television, according to its Facebook page.

It also emphasizes its high alcohol beers, free shots and drinking games. Wednesday night was karaoke night, according to the page."