The Spanish city of A Coruña recently honored Ibrahima Diack and Magatte N’Diaye for their bravery in intervening and preventing the brutal beating of 24-year-old gay nursing assistant Samuel Luiz. The city honored the men as “adopted sons of the city” in a formal ceremony during which Mayor Inés Rey awarded the two men with plaques.

Diack and N’Diaye, both undocumented immigrants from Senegal residing in the city, risked arrest and deportation if they came in contact with legal authorities. Despite this danger, they intervened when they saw a man violently attacking Luiz outside a nightclub in July 2021. 

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“He was brutally beaten for the sole reason that he is gay,” the victim’s lawyer says.

While other bystanders watched or recorded the incident on their phones, Diack and N’Diaye were the only ones to step in and push the attacker away from Luiz.

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Unfortunately, the attaker returned five minutes later with 12 others and launched a savage assault that resulted in Luiz’s death. This brutal incident sparked outrage and solidarity throughout Spain, leading to protests that erupted a few days later.

During these demonstrations, riot police confronted the protesters with batons and other forceful tactics, sparking outrage among many politicians.

At the time, Mónica García, a spokeswoman for the progressive green party Más Madrid, stated on Twitter (now X) that she was deeply concerned about the police’s “disproportionate” tactics.

A petition arose to rename the street where Luiz was killed after him, as a way to honor his memory.

Authorities arrested four men in connection with Luiz’s murder: Diego Montaña, Alejandro Freire, Kaio Amaral, and Alejandro Míguez, all of whom received prison sentences following the trial. Montaña received a 24-year sentence, Freire and Amaral each received 20 years, and Míguez, who did not physically attack Luiz, received a 10-year sentence as an accomplice.

In her sentencing remarks, Judge Elena Fernanda Pastor Novo expressed condolences to Luiz’s family, noting they experienced “significant psychological suffering beyond the pain inherent in the loss of a son and a brother.” She stated that Montaña showed “an absolute lack of empathy and a cruelty that warrant a more severe sentence,” leading to his harsher punishment.

During the honoring ceremony, Mayor Rey commended the two men for their bravery, stating, “That two undocumented migrants were the only ones who physically risked themselves to help the victim of a pack thirsting for horror leaves much food for thought and a series of lessons.”

Both men, however, humbly insisted they weren’t heroes.

“We are not heroes, we did what we had to do,” N’Diaye said. Diack added, “I was born in a family that doesn’t have much… but they gave me many things more valuable than money. They gave me respect, education, and, above all, values.”

In addition to their brave intervention, Diack and N’Diaye also served as key witnesses in the trial of Luiz’s killers last November. 

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