All weekend his photo was taken because he saved a little girl from certain death, a little Syrian girl trapped on a boat in danger with her father and 76 other migrants, desperately trying to cross the Mediterranean. It happened last Thursday, near the coastal town of Crotone, Calabria.
At around 9 p.m., Inspector Luigi Crupi, 42, 18 years of service, received a call from a lady reporting a sinking boat a hundred meters from the coast. “The wind was blowing hard, he tells the newspaper Corriere della Sera, there was surf, waves threatened to grab us. Could not go with the rescue boat so we decided to make a human chain in the water.“
In una notte di tempesta, due braccia forti sono il riparo e la salvezza per questo piccolo bambino e per la sua famiglia.#essercisempre #ivaloricheciuniscono #Unitaliaunita# 5November pic.twitter.com/0Fhm5krWmK
– Polizia di Stato (@poliziadistato) November 5, 2021
Among his colleagues, Luigi Crupi is the tallest, 1m84, so he goes there first and discovers crying families on the boat, and about fifteen children. But the inspector does not have time to count that a man hands him a terrified little girl: “He almost threw her in my arms, I grabbed her, she gripped my collar really tight, so I told her in English ‘don’t worry’ don’t worry ‘and swam to the shore. “
A journey against the tide, in the darkness of the night, trying, for which the policeman has moreover described his fear. That of not succeeding, of letting go of your protege, of being carried away by the sea. “She kept telling me ‘thank you, thank you’ and I thought of my daughter, he says, because she is about the same age, eight years old, and when I carry her in my arms, it’s to play, for her to have fun, for her to laugh. “
It was very moving, because when you see these children, you realize that they have endured a terrible journey, that their lives are in your hands, and I know that I will carry the memory of their faces until the end of this. my days.
Luigi Crupi, policeman in Crotonedaily La Repubblica
Arrived on the scene, a photographer immortalizes the scene which will be repeated everywhere, that of the policeman coming out of the water, holding in his arms the little girl in the gray coat. Everything goes very quickly, Luigi Crupi entrusts it to the volunteers of the Red Cross then returns to the open sea. A few hours later, it is a wave of thanks which surge on the social networks to thank the police officer.