LEWISTON — Police are sifting through photographs and videos posted on social media, studying street surveillance footage and conducting nearly 100 interviews with witnesses as they continue to investigate the beating death of a local man last month near Kennedy Park.
No arrests have been made in the June 12 incident in which Donald Giusti, 38, was badly beaten and died days later.
Witnesses said Giusti was beaten as two groups clashed near the downtown park late that night. The brawl was said to have been the result of ongoing disputes between the two groups.
“We’re still actively working on it, steadfastly, with state police,” Lewiston Police Lt. David St. Pierre said Tuesday. “We’ve been very busy on it.”
Maine State Police investigators are being assisted by the Computer Crimes Task Force in reviewing materials on the internet, according to St. Pierre.
“I would say that at some point, hopefully, these leads that we’ve been following will turn into charges,” he said.
City officials recently imposed a 10 p.m. curfew for all of Kennedy Park, changed from previous curfews that had been set for different times for the two sides of the park.
Police are continuing foot patrols in and around the park, urging the public not to congregate or create a nuisance, St. Pierre said.
“They’ve been pretty good about policing themselves,” he said.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has not released publicly the cause or manner of Giusti’s death.
Brian Veres, Giusti’s older brother, said Tuesday his family was disappointed the community has not appeared to move any closer toward healing the rift that led to the confrontation that night and, ultimately, to his brother’s death.
Veres said the silence around the incident is not productive. He and his family fear the situation is worsening and likely to erupt into violence again.
Giusti’s four children, who live in Lewiston, do not feel safe in the area of Kennedy Park, he said, and Giusti’s family has been the subject of indirect threats.
“We want people to feel safe there,” Veres said. “We want people in the community to know that this doesn’t have to keep happening.”
A similar clash occurred in May, Veres noted.
Residents who live downtown should be vocal in demanding that peace be restored to that area, and that Kennedy Park belong again to the entire community, he said.
His family made an effort to bring the downtown community together in the wake of Giusti’s death by hosting a public memorial service and barbecue in his name. The gathering included many ethnic groups, he said. He had hoped that effort would have continued, but he has not seen that happen.
“Right now, the community is in an uproar,” Veres said, referring to feelings of “hate” in messages through social channels.
“That’s not going to help at all,” he said. “There’s no point in getting hate involved in it because then it’s just going to escalate and the whole community’s going to suffer for it.”
Veres is hoping that his brother’s death can be a catalyst for positive change, he said.
“Donnie’s murder, it’s horrible,” Veres said. “But as for Donnie, he’s no longer with us anymore. He’s at peace.”
An organ donor, Giusti helped others even in death, Veres added.
“That’s a great thing, because he’s giving other people an opportunity to live out their lives and so that other families don’t have to suffer,” he said.
Donald Giusti (Facebook photo)
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