LEWISTON, Maine — Details were released Thursday in the death case of a Lewiston man who died three days after being involved in a brawl last June near Kennedy Park.
An affidavit cites deposition from a Maine State Police detective, specifically directed at supporting evidence to charge Pierre Mousafiri with assault.
The 23-year-old suspect, whose name was spelled Mousafiri by police and Musafiri by Androscoggin County Superior Court, was one of three people arrested Thursday in connection to the death of Donald Giusti.
Both of the other two suspects were juveniles, ages 17 and 13.
Giusti died June 15, 2018.
In the court document, the detective says Lewiston police got a call at about 10:45 p.m. on June 12, 2018 – a Tuesday night – reporting a large fight in progress in the area of Knox Street and Spruce Street. Seven officers arrived on scene and found several people involved in a street fight. Most fled upon arrival.
One of the officers found Giusti on Knox Street "laying in the street with blood coming from his head." The officer knew it was Giusti due to previous law enforcement encounters, the affidavit states.
An unidentified group in the area told the officer Giusti had been struck in the head by a rock. The officer reported seeing a rock lying next to Giusti's left leg.
Another responding officer reported upon arrival seeing people fleeing in all directions, and saw several with injuries. He spoke with two witnesses, one of which told him she saw the fight taking place and saw a man or boy kicking Giusti while he was on the ground.
Giusti's autopsy on June 18, 2018, showed two areas of significant trauma to his head and brain, as well as a patterned injury on his left shoulder, a broken clavicle and a fracture to one of his left rear ribs.
His cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma.
Two detectives – one from the Lewiston Police Department and another from Maine State Police – jointly interviewed a 17-year-old on June 18, 2018.
The teenager told detectives he had walked to the area of the fight on Knox Street not knowing it was about to take place. He told them he witnessed a "brick" being thrown at a "white guy," 20-30 feet in front of him, causing the man to fall to the ground.
According to the teenager's statements to detectives, the man stumbled while running backward, almost falling, catching himself from falling with his hands. He said he then witnessed the man appear to get back up when he was struck in the head with the "brick," causing him to fall to the ground.
The court document states the boy told detectives that when the man fell to the ground "they (referring to the Somali / Congo group) 'stomped' him for about ten (10) seconds before everyone took off running."
About 30 Somalian and Congo people were fighting against 15 white people, the teenager told detectives. He told them several of those involved were armed with sticks, BB guns and even a bat. He also said that he recorded some of it on video using Snapchat and had saved them using the Memories feature.
Two days prior, a 22-year-old had alerted Lewiston detectives of Snapchat video that was seemingly shot at the scene. It showed a portion of the street fight on Knox Street, and also a young man throwing a rock, which appeared to strike a man.
Detectives later showed witnesses the video to help identify people involved.
On June 19, 2018, a detective interviewed someone who admitted to throwing a rock toward a group of people during the fight.
Later that month, detectives were granted a search warrant for access to the Snapchat account of the 17-year-old who had captured video of the fight. The court document states Giusti is seen in one of the videos on the ground being kicked by several people.
The video was again showed to witnesses to help with identification.
In a December 7, 2018, interview with a 17-year-old who was at the fight, a detective was told by the boy he had witnessed his "cousin" throw a rock and hit Giusti in the "head." He was shown the Snapchat video and identified to police two people who kicked Giusti when he was down – one who kicked Giusti in the area of his clavicle, and the other, Mousafiri, who allegedly kicked Giusti in the lower left side of his ribs, the same area of the broken rib.
Mousafiri was interviewed the same day. The affidavit states he was shown the Snapchat video, and not only identified for police the person who threw the rock but said that person had thrown a second rock while Guisti was on the ground.
According to the court document, Mousafiri admitted to the detective he had kicked Giusti, identifying himself on the video. He also identified to police the first name of the other person seen kicking Giusti, telling the detective the person was a middle school student and that he knew his father's name.