After police in Ottawa were called for a coffee shop disturbance a foot chase ensued. The man they was chasing was 37 years old Abdirahman Abdi , a black Somali immigrant, and mentally ill, known to the community.
They pepper sprayed him, had him on the ground and witnesses say he was beaten so badly that he died from his attack.
The community are shocked, many knew him as a sweet kind man, many are questioning the police treatment of a mentally ill person and racial questions are also being asked.
The National Post reported
Eyewitness Zainab Abdallah said on Sunday that she saw Abdi, pursued by police, run toward the apartment building, and she tried to intervene. She said she pleaded with the officers that Abdi had a mental illness, but she said they didn’t stop.
The family’s spokeswoman, Nimao Ali, said Monday after a meeting with doctors that a lack of oxygen to Abdi’s brain could have played a role in his death.
She could not confirm the official cause of death.
A video obtained on Sunday by Postmedia shows that Abdi was left on the pavement, face down and handcuffed, for nearly 10 minutes after he was taken down by police and before paramedics arrived and started CPR.
The police reports differ, they say they called paramedics 23 seconds after his collapse and that they relayed his condition the whole time to the paramedics.
All of this, according to witness information we have right now, again seems incredibly unnecessary and this black man seems to be yet another death at the hands of police brutality.
More can be read on The National Post.
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