Final Farewell to Nicola Barbato: A Tribute to a Heroic Police Officer

Many people gather in front of the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Teverola, Caserta, for the last goodbye to the 61-year-old Deputy Superintendent Chief of the State Police Nicola Barbato, gold medal for civil valor. The emotion is great and the pain palpable. "We thank you, Nicola, for giving us life," said the Chief of Police Vittorio Pisani, a friend of Barbato for having both served during the same period at the Mobile Squad of Naples. "We, Angelina (Barbato's wife, ed), will welcome your children - Pisani added - as our own children, as the great family of the State Police is able to do and to be. Nicola in an interview said: 'I am without legs but without legs one can live'. We who have legs, have the duty to walk his example on our legs." Present were the Police Commissioner of Caserta Andrea Grassi and the prefect Giuseppe Castaldo, the parliamentarians from Caserta Stefano Graziano, Gimmi Cangiano, Marco Cerreto, and Gianpiero Zinzi. "A great man, a great policeman, a great family man," said the parish priest don Evaristo Rutino during the homily. "We must tear down - the priest added - the culture of violence, of death, for a path of truth, justice, and charity."