(((( RIP Briton stabbed to death at Euro 2004 June 22, 2004 LISBON (AFP) - A 27-year-old British football fan died after being stabbed by a Croatian supporter in central Lisbon. The Portuguese news agency Lusa quoted police as saying the attack took place after England beat Croatia 4-2 to win a place in the quarter finals of the European Championships in Portugal. Police said the man had been stabbed in the heart and died of his injuries after being taken to hospital in Lisbon. A Croatian football fan has been arrested, police said Tuesday. http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=afp-fbl_eur_2004_eng_cro&prov=afp&type=lgns
Five minutes after posting the article above, Yahoo updated the story with this: "LISBON, June 22 (Reuters) - An England soccer fan was killed in a possible robbery attempt early on Tuesday and a Ukrainian man has been arrested, Portuguese police said" http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-euroenglandstabbing&prov=reuters&type=lgns
So it takes someone to get killed before the police take any notice. They were told repeatedly about this guy and now it's too late ------------------- "It was about four in the morning and there were about 200 England fans sitting around at tables having a drink and a laugh," he told the Press Association. "This guy had been coming up and down for hours trying to take people's wallets and everyone was fed up with him. We'd been telling the police about him but they didn't do anything. "An England guy pushed him away, he went away and came back about two minutes later and went straight over to a different guy just sitting at a table and stabbed him." Noah said the stabbed fan fell to the ground. "A girl was screaming and police came running across to arrest the attacker as he ran away. They got him on the ground and got the handcuffs on him." http://edition.cnn.com/2004/SPORT/football/06/22/euro.fan/index.htm
Good thing there aren't nearly as many guns in Portugal as there are in the US or thus guy could have killed several fans all at once.
Or several stray bullets could have hit a lot of innocent bystanders. Works a lot of different ways. This is an upsetting story anyway you look at it. Our thoughts should be with the victim's family and fellow supporters.
It figures that they would blame a Croat first, without getting all the facts straight. The Ukraine didn't even qualify for the tournament. I wonder what's this guy's beef.
who are you referring to as 'they'? The English? It was the PORTUGUESE press that initially said it was a Croat, not the UK papers
Tough luck. RIP. Makes you wonder why they didn't just kick the crap out of him right away when he didn't appear to have a knife.