The Abdirahman Abdi inquest is being livestreamed during weekdays here.
The coroner’s inquest into the death of Abdirahman Abdi was thrown for a loop late on Thursday, with a forensic pathologist suggesting a new statement of Abdi’s cause of death that has one inquest group worried it would stigmatize people with mental illness.
Abdi, 38, was a Somali-Canadian man whose health unravelled in the months leading to his violent arrest by two Ottawa police officers in July 2016. He was pronounced dead a day after the altercation.
The mandatory inquest has heard police were responding to calls about Abdi groping multiple women that morning. He fled police and in the ensuing struggle was punched several times in the head. He stopped breathing shortly thereafter.
The virtual inquest has also heard that Abdi likely suffered from schizophrenia, a new detail not previously known, at least publicly, until now.
While the manslaughter trial against the acquitted officer who dealt the blows to Abdi was told of a psychotic illness, it was not disclosed as schizophrenia.
Chief Forensic Pathologist for Ontario Dr. Michael Pollanen testified Thursday at the inquest to walk the jury through the findings of Dr. Christopher Milroy, who conducted Abdi’s autopsy. The jury of civilians from the Ottawa area is tasked with making its own findings on Abdi’s cause and manner of death, based on evidence heard at the inquest.
As Pollanen explained, Milroy concluded that a mix of factors contributed to Abdi’s heart failure, including an underlying heart condition, Abdi’s physical exertions on the day of his arrest, his struggle with police and the blows to his head.
Pollanen’s own statement of the cause of death, offered at the very end of his testimony at the invitation of presiding officer Dr. David Eden, also cited that combination of factors but added another: Abdi’s apparent schizophrenia.
“The reality of this man’s situation is that he is in this situation because he’s having an acute psychotic episode,” Pollanen said. “Schizophrenia is a disease, it’s a psychiatric disease, [and] very important in this case.”
To be clear, Pollanen did not say he disagreed with Milroy’s 2016 statement, just that he would phrase it differently.
Pollanen said he would list the factors that happened closer to Abdi’s death first, so that his cause of death statement would read as follows:
“Post cardiac arrest encephalopathy following blunt trauma in a man with exertion, struggle, acute psychosis, schizophrenia and [underlying] atherosclerotic coronary artery disease.”
‘It is not helpful’
Regardless of Pollanen’s suggested ordering of factors, his suggestion immediately sparked debate after he and the inquest jury were excused for the day.
Lawrence Greenspon, who is representing Abdi’s family at the inquest, said it was procedurally unfair because he and other lawyers who had previously had the chance to cross-examine Pollanen on the rest of his inquest testimony were not able to quiz him about his “last-minute revised version of the cause of death.”
Anita Szigeti, the lawyer for the Empowerment Council, which advocates for people struggling with mental illness, said it would be “profoundly damaging” to have a “purported diagnosis front and centre” in the description of Abdi’s cause of death.
The inquest has not heard that Abdi received a clear diagnosis of schizophrenia, only that in early July he showed signs of a “schizophrenia spectrum illness,” according to an agreed statement of facts.
WATCH / The death of Abdirahman Abdi: Here’s what you need to know:
WARNING: This video contains graphic content | Eight years after Abdirahman Abdi died following a violent struggle with Ottawa police, a coroner’s inquest is bringing the event back into the spotlight. Here’s what you need to know.
An expert psychiatrist who did not treat Abdi but was asked by the inquest to review his case testified earlier this week that Abdi’s symptoms likely pointed to schizophrenia.
Even if it was that, “it is not helpful, I think, either for the jury or for the community to have the particular formulation,” Szigeti said.
Solomon Friedman, the lawyer for the two officers involved in Abdi’s arrest, said he supported Pollanen’s statement.
Earlier in the day, he had walked Pollanen through new elements of the Abdi story that have emerged during the inquest and that Friedman argued further contributed to Abdi’s physical and emotional stress.
“It was sort of a very helpful way of doing what Dr. Milroy can’t because Dr. Milroy is not testifying here, which is to be open to amending a cause of death or reorganizing it or both,” Friedman said of Pollanen’s analysis.
Greenspon asked presiding officer Eden to consider telling the jury to disregard Pollanen’s amended cause of death.
Eden said he would take the input and draw up a ruling. As he’s pointed out, it’s up to jurors to decide how much weight to give expert testimony.
The inquest continues on Friday.