Irish authorities have agreed to a second postmortem on the body of a Congolese man who died after being restrained by shop security guards on a Dublin street, prompting an outcry and comparisons to the death of George Floyd.
A forensic pathologist from England is to conduct an independent postmortem this week on Yves Sakila, 35, an alleged shoplifter who was pursued and pinned to the ground in the city centre on 15 May. The police force, An Garda Síochána, is investigating.
Protestors have held several rallies and on Saturday held a vigil at Henry Street near Arnotts, a department store where Sakila allegedly stole a bottle of perfume, leading to a chase outside, where security guards detained him for about five minutes until police arrived and found him to be unresponsive. Some of the incident was filmed and shared on social media.
Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, the foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, visited Dublin last week to meet family representatives and Irish officials.
Sakila’s relatives were traumatised and “reeling”, the minister told RTÉ. “But they also displayed an enormous amount of courage, of serenity, and of course, of patience and trust in the Irish authorities that justice will be made and that light will be shed on the circumstances around Mr Sakila’s untimely death.”
The family wanted to understand “how such a demonstration of excessive force could happen in broad daylight” and to ensure that publicity around the case was not short-lived, said Wagner.
The minister met Ireland’s president, Catherine Connolly, the justice minister, Jim O’Callaghan, and the foreign minister, Helen McEntee. “The conversations that I had in Dublin were very fruitful and constructive and encouraging,” she said.
The case has sharpened scrutiny on race relations in Ireland, where some activists and politicians have linked the arrival of immigrants and asylum seekers with a housing shortage and cost of living crisis.
Bertie Ahern, a former taoiseach, was secretly recorded earlier this month – before Sakila’s death – saying: “The ones I worry about are the Africans. We can’t be taking in people from the Congo and all these places.”
Placards at vigils for Sakila have referenced Black Lives Matter, the movement that spread in the US after a police officer in Minneapolis was filmed cutting off Floyd’s oxygen supply by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of murder.
Sakila, who had lived in Ireland since 2004, reportedly had convictions for theft and was living in a homeless shelter. During his pursuit, an elderly man was knocked over and broke a hip.
Footage shared on social media showed Sakila face down and being restrained, with one man appearing to kneel on his neck. When police arrived they briefly handcuffed Sakila before realising he was unresponsive and taking him to the Mater hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The postmortem appeared to be inconclusive, requiring a second one, the family’s solicitor, John Gerard Cullen, told reporters. “There are so many unanswered questions,” he said. He has submitted 41 questions to gardaí. David Rouse, a pathologist with Forensic Healthcare Services in Essex, is to conduct the second postmortem.