For the past six years, the owners of the Aljazeera Food and Meat Market in Hintonburg would often see Abdirahman Abdi stroll into their shop on Wellington Street West to buy phone cards to call his relatives in Somalia or to pick up some food for his family.
“He was a very, very quiet person. A very peaceful person. It was a big shock to me,” said Hani – who declined to give his last name – from behind the counter Tuesday morning, still reeling from Abdi’s death.
The 37-year-old Somali-Canadian’s death on Sunday while in Ottawa police custody following an altercation outside 55 Hilda Street is sending shock waves across the immigrant community and is now the subject of an investigation by the Special Investigations Unit, a civilian police oversight agency. Several witnesses and family members say he suffered from an unspecified mental illness.
The SIU is currently interviewing two subject officers involved in the incident and five witness officers.
“Sometimes I pushed him to talk because he’s not that kind of person who likes to talk to a lot. I chitchat with him, joke with him,” recalled Hani. “He never hurt anyone with any word he mentioned.”
Abdi’s brother, Abdul Razaq, dropped by the store around 3 p.m. Monday afternoon in tears and bought four phone cards, said Hani.
“He was sad, very quiet. I saw a tear. I never saw a tear on his cheek. I said, 'What’s wrong?’ and he said, ‘The police killed him yesterday.’ This is what he said, word for word,” said Hani.
Graphic video footage emerged Tuesday morning on YouTube appearing to show Abdi lying motionless in front of the apartment building’s entrance in handcuffs with his T-shirt and face covered in blood. At least one woman can be heard in the video wailing from inside the lobby, while a man tells four Ottawa police officers off camera, “This is the family. I am the superintendent.”
*WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT
According to Kiabu, things changed after Abdi returned to Canada from Somalia in early 2016. He was a different person, Kiabu said.
“Before he was good. He was talking,” he recalled,
before the trip to Somalia. But Kiabu says he noticed a change when Abdi
returned from the Somalia trip.
“He was sick in the head. Like mental or
something."
The incident has shaken Kiabu.
“I’m very scared. I’m scared when police come very close to me,” he said.
“That imagination come to me, like, I don’t know, if I say any word it can happen like (Abdi).”
Bosco Kiabu, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, lives in the same building as Abdi’s family. He said Abdi would often offer to help him brings bags into the building when he bumped into him. He was quiet and was not aggressive, he said.
According to Kiabu, things changed after Abdi returned to Canada from Somalia in early 2016. He was a different person, Kiabu said.
“Before he was good. He was talking,” he recalled,
before the trip to Somalia. But Kiabu says he noticed a change when Abdi
returned from the Somalia trip.
“He was sick in the head. Like mental or
something."
The incident has shaken Kiabu.
“I’m very scared. I’m scared when police come very close to me,” he said.
“That imagination come to me, like, I don’t know, if I say any word it can happen like (Abdi).”