Inquest jury calls Abdi’s death a homicide

The recent verdict from the jury in an Ontario coroner’s inquest has declared the death of Abdirahman Abdi, a Black man who died a day after a violent arrest by two Ottawa police officers, as a homicide. This ruling does not imply legal blame but signifies that Abdi’s cause of death was a non-accidental injury inflicted by another person. The jury has also put forward a series of recommendations aimed at preventing similar tragedies, particularly focusing on improving responses to mental health calls.

Abdi, a 38-year-old Somali-Canadian man, had been struggling with deteriorating mental health in the months leading up to his arrest. His tragic passing on July 25, 2016, came after he was punched in the head multiple times during an altercation with officers responding to reports of him groping women in his neighborhood.

One of the key recommendations made by the jury is for the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) to establish a new advisory board that includes individuals with lived experiences of mental health issues. This board would work towards developing a comprehensive mental health strategy across the OPS to enhance outcomes in situations where law enforcement interacts with individuals in crisis.

The inquest, which took place over eight years after Abdi’s death and four years following the acquittal of Const. Daniel Montsion, the officer responsible for the fatal blows, shed light on various issues such as the intersection of race and mental health, police tactics, training, de-escalation techniques, and the OPS’s accountability to the public and its oversight board.

The cause of Abdi’s death was determined to be “Post cardiac arrest encephalopathy following blunt trauma in a man with exertion, struggle and underlying atherosclerotic coronary artery disease.” While there was debate during the inquest about whether to include Abdi’s unconfirmed schizophrenia diagnosis in the cause of death, the jury ultimately chose not to do so to prevent stigmatization of individuals with mental illness.

In clarifying the term “homicide” in the context of a coroner’s inquest, Dr. David Eden, the presiding officer, emphasized that it is a factual finding based on the evidence presented and not a judgment of guilt or negligence. The classification options for the manner of death include natural causes, accident, suicide, homicide, and undetermined.

Despite the jury’s verdict, Const. Montsion was cleared of manslaughter charges and has since returned to duty as a police officer. The inquest’s recommendations aim to bring about systemic changes within the OPS to prevent similar tragedies in the future and ensure accountability and transparency in law enforcement practices.