A brave entrepreneur has died in the ICU four days after being punched while trying to break up a brawl.
Father-of-one, Shimpei Tominaga passed away on Tuesday (25 Jun) night.
The horror unfolded last week, on Friday night (21 Jun), when three young Italian men began brawling with two young Ukrainian men.
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One of the Ukrainian men involved was injured and took refuge in a kebab joint in a bid to avoid a further beating.
After the Italians followed him in, Tominaga, 56, and two of his friends stepped in to try to calm things down.
They pleaded with the trio to stop.
That’s when one of them allegedly punched the entrepreneur in the face, causing him to fall, as reported on Need To Know.
Tominaga sustained multiple skull fractures and was taken to a hospital in Udine, Italy.
He was in critical condition.
The man who delivered the fatal punch, identified as 19-year-old Samuele Battistella from Mareno di Piave, has been taken into custody.
He is charged with serious bodily injury but the charge is expected to be upgraded to manslaughter.
Battistella’s peers, 21-year-old Abd Allah Djouamaa and 19-year-old Daniele Wedam from Conegliano have also been detained ahead of trial.
Battistella, Djouamaa, and a third suspect, whose identity was withheld at the time, are also facing trial for robbery with aggravating factors and assault.
The charges relate to an incident in November 2022.
One of the Ukrainians has been banned from living in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.
Tominaga was Japanese but lived in Udine.
He leaves behind a wife and a 13-year-old son.
Udine mayor Alberto Felice De Toni described his death as a “serious and painful wound” for the city.
He said Tominaga’s “courageous gesture” demonstrated “an exceptional sense of civic responsibility and altruism”.
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