The jury in an Ontario coroner’s inquest has declared the death of Abdirahman Abdi, a Black man who died a day after his violent arrest by two Ottawa police officers, a homicide. It’s also made 57 recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths.
In the context of a coroner’s inquest, homicide does not carry any legal blame and simply means the jury found Abdi’s cause of death was an injury “which was non-accidentally inflicted” by another person.
The jury’s calls for change, many of which are directed to the Ottawa Police Service (OPS), were read out Tuesday evening during the conclusion of the month-long virtual inquest.
Abdi was a 38-year-old Somali-Canadian man who struggled with his mental health. He was pronounced dead on July 25, 2016, a day after he was punched in the head several times while officers tried to handcuff him following reports he’d groped women in his Ottawa neighbourhood.
Abdi, 38, struggled with his mental illness. (Courtesy Abdi family)
The inquest jury’s findings come more than eight years since Abdi’s death and more than four years after a judge found Const. Daniel Montsion, who dealt the head blows, not guilty of manslaughter.
The inquest was mandatory because Abdi died in police custody. It focused on the intersection of Blackness and mental health, police tactics and training, de-escalation, and the OPS’s accountability to the public and its civilian-led oversight board.
The jury of five people did not include Abdi’s mental illness in the cause of death, a possibility that stirred debate during the inquest.
The inquest heard evidence from two forensic pathologists that a mix of factors contributed to Abdi’s heart failure including an underlying heart condition, his physical exertion on the day of his arrest (including stressful encounters with bystanders), his struggle with police, and Montsion’s blows to Abdi’s head.
Ottawa police Const. Daniel Montsion arrives at the courthouse during his 2019-2020 trial over Abdi’s death. Montsion was charged with manslaughter. A judge found him not guilty. (Robyn Miller/CBC)
What ‘homicide’ means in a coroner’s inquest
Dr. David Eden, the inquest’s presiding officer, explained what “homicide” means in the context of a coroner’s inquest after final arguments on Monday.
It’s not a trial, he emphasized every day of the inquest.
“If this were a criminal or civil trial or a professional disciplinary hearing, some of the evidence you heard might well be relevant to the court’s finding as to whether or not a defendant was guilty of an offence, civil negligence or failure to meet professional standards,” Eden said.
“You are not judging the conduct of any person or institution or making a finding that someone broke the law or acted in a negligent or unprofessional manner. A finding of homicide by an inquest jury is a finding of fact based on the definitions provided to you.”
This is the decision tree jurors were given to help them come to a decision on Abdi’s “manner of death”:
This is the decision chart given to aid jurors in deciding a person’s manner of death. (Office of the Chief Coroner)