Milan Officer Who Boasted of Beating Moroccans Charged With Mansouri’s Killing
Before Abderrahim Mansouri was killed by a police officer in Milan in January 2026, the man suspected of killing him had boasted about beating Moroccans. Messages recovered by investigators reveal his violent remarks, broken batons and troubling photographs.
“When I catch Moroccans in the woods, I beat them up.” In December 2025, Carmelo Cinturrino, then a police officer at the Mecenate station in Milan, made these remarks in a message to his colleagues. Six weeks later, on January 26, 2026, he shot 28-year-old Moroccan Abderrahim Mansouri, nicknamed Zack, in the head. Conversations involving the former officer are now among the thousands of pages in the investigation file, the contents of which La Repubblica reveals on Wednesday, November 4.
The exchanges date back several months before the tragedy. In May 2025, Cinturrino had already explained to a colleague how he treated people he detained. After a drug operation, he boasted about handing out slaps. His colleague replied: “From now on, no more mercy.”
In September, the officer complained that he had broken a recently purchased baton. He said he needed an iron model. Two days later, he sent a photograph of his new equipment, along with a satisfied comment: it would not bend.
A baton broken two weeks before the killing
In December, Cinturrino shared a photograph of his hand covered in bruises, which he said were the result of chasing a Moroccan man. On New Year’s Eve, he posed with a hammer. Witnesses accused him of using the tool to hit people he had stopped. The former officer said he used it to search for drugs in the ground.
In January 2026, about two weeks before Mansouri’s death, he again said he had violently beaten a Moroccan man and broken his baton in the process.
On January 26, in Rogoredo, Cinturrino shot Abderrahim Mansouri during a drug operation. He said he had acted out of fear, believing the young man was armed. Investigators established that Mansouri was unarmed when he was shot and that a fake gun was placed beside his body afterward.
A trial for murder is in the works
Milan prosecutors have asked for the former officer to stand trial for intentional homicide, with the aggravating circumstance of violating his professional duties. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for December 18, 2026, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.
During questioning on October 6, Cinturrino told magistrates: “I didn’t want to kill him; it was a tragedy.” A separate investigation is examining his methods of operation, with several colleagues also under investigation over illegal arrests, extortion and violence. The conversations uncovered by investigators now shed light on these practices, which they have dubbed the “Cinturrino method.”
