Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin has called for a thorough investigation into the death of a Congolese-born man after he was restrained outside a Dublin department store in an incident that has shocked the nation.
Irish police said the man was detained by security guards on Dublin’s busy Henry Street last Friday in connection with an alleged shoplifting incident.
He subsequently became unresponsive at the scene and was later pronounced dead, police said.
A video of the incident shared since on social media showed the man, Yves Sakila, being pinned to the ground by five men for almost five minutes as bystanders watched on. Two of the men held his face to the ground and at one point one of them appeared to kneel on his head or neck for a few seconds.
“The full circumstances of what happened need to be examined and investigated fully and thoroughly. The situation is deeply concerning,” Martin told parliament on Tuesday.
Police said on Wednesday that investigations into all of the circumstances of the incident were ongoing. A man in his 80s was also injured at the scene as Sakila attempted to flee, they said.
The Irish Network Against Racism expressed concern that excessive force may have been used against Sakila and said in a statement that “the death of a black man in such circumstances is extremely worrying.”
Passers-by stopped on Henry Street on Wednesday where flowers were laid at the spot Sakila was detained outside Arnotts, one of the country’s best known department stores.
“I couldn’t sleep at night. I just kept watching it (the video) time over time,” said Sanaa Basit, a translator and mother of two who moved to Ireland from Sudan 10 years ago.
“It was horrific, absolutely brutal,” said Irishman Darren Collins, 31. “I think racism and discrimination in Ireland is very, very high and something needs to be sorted.”
Laure Zoya, vice president of the Congolese Community in Ireland group, said its members, who she said were among the first black communities to move to Ireland, were shocked, disturbed and no longer felt safe.
Sakila, whom police said was in his 30s, moved to Ireland when he was very young, she added.
“The Ireland that they knew 30 years ago is no longer the same,” Zoya told national broadcaster RTE.
