Naples – A long, silent, and respectful applause accompanied the exit of the coffin of Aniello "Nello" Scarpati, the 56-year-old police officer who died on the night between October 31st and November 1st during a patrol in Torre del Greco. His patrol car was struck by an SUV: a violent crash, with no chance of escape.
Today, at the ADI Evangelical Christian Church on Via Fra' Gregorio Carafa in Naples, his family, colleagues, and the entire community bid farewell to a young officer described by all as "everyone's policeman."
Through tears, but with a firm voice, his wife, Eliana Donadoni, remembered him before the authorities and the crowd gathered in the churchyard: "I am proud to be the wife of a policeman. My husband was born in uniform and died in uniform. He will always be in our hearts; I will love him forever. Whoever killed him will pay."
Beside her, her son Daniel, still too young to fully grasp the weight of that moment. But when reporters asked her what her husband would think if one day that child were to decide to follow his own path, Eliana had no doubts:
“I’ll be proud, and so will he. Daniel will live up to his father.”
The church was packed not only with family and friends, but also with the highest officials of the state: Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, Police Chief Vittorio Pisani, Cardinal Mimmo Battaglia of Naples, Prefect Michele di Bari, and President of the Campania Region Vincenzo De Luca. An institutional and human embrace surrounded a broken family and an entire wounded community.
Scarpati, his colleagues recall, was a young officer but already a point of reference: "always the first to offer a hand," "someone who believed in the uniform as a mission, not a job."
A boy in love with his job and his city.
Now there's a burning pain, but also a memory that demands justice. And a promise, whispered through the tears of a wife who has lost her life partner but not her dignity: "Nello will always be with us. He was a husband, a father, and a policeman for all."
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