Paramedic says there was no sense of ‘urgency’ when he arrived to help.
A screen shot from a video played in a Winnipeg courtroom of William Ahmo confronting the jail’s riot police.
APTN News: His mother’s sobs could be heard in a Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday as she watched video of a group of correctional officers subdue Wiliam Ahmo in jail. The 45-year-old Anishinaabe inmate had been in an hours-long standoff with male guards at Headingley Correctional Institution west of Winnipeg on Feb. 7, 2021.
Provincial court was told Ahmo lost consciousness after guards swarmed and beat him, then he stopped breathing before paramedics arrived and re-started his heart. He died a week later in a Winnipeg hospital.
The captain of the jail’s Correctional Emergency Response Unit (CERU) was charged following Ahmo’s death. Robert Jeffrey Morden has pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide necessaries of life.
“It looked like their version of SWAT,” said John Kirouac, a paramedic who said he and his partner were called to Headingley that evening for a case of “potential self-harm.” But there was no sense of “urgency” when they arrived and the pair was told to wait “10 to 15 minutes,” Kirouac said. When they entered a room where Ahmo was lying on the floor they found him surrounded by about 15 guards in riot gear.
No one, including a female nurse, explained what happened, Kirouac added on Day 2 of the trial. “We didn’t expect to walk into that,” he said.
Ahmo’s mother, Darlene, of Sagkeeng First Nation north of Winnipeg, has filed a civil suit against the guards and province of Manitoba for alleged racist treatment and excessive force in connection with William’s death. She wore a traditional First Nations ribbon skirt to court with the hashtag Justice forWill Ahmo sewn near the bottom.
Court heard it was a racist joke that sent William into a violent frenzy in a common room that afternoon. Crisis negotiator Michel Jolicoeur said William destroyed television sets, hurled computers and ripped a water tank off the wall “like it was nothing.”
Angry outbursts
He likened the inmate’s roller coaster behaviour – angry outbursts followed by periods of quiet – to the methamphetamine-induced psychosis he’d observed in other prisoners. He said William made threats to kill people, raved about going to heaven, and wanted to free the inmates.
Yet, no drugs were detected in William’s system.
“He said, ‘This was war?’” asked defence lawyer Richard Wolson. “Correct,” said Jolicouer, who had previously testified William was having a mental health crisis. “He believed he was in a war.”
CERU officers fired pepper spray at the shirtless William, who could be seen washing his eyes and covering his face with clothing in the two-level common room. But William continued stockpiling broken glass and other debris that Jolicouer said could be used against the guards when he wasn’t pacing or sitting down and praying.
“I’ve been involved in over 60 major incidents as a crisis negotiator,” Jolicouer said. “Probably one of the most in the province, and I’ve never seen an incident like this before.”
William Ahmo in a selfie before his death in February 2021. Photo: Facebook
A second video court viewed Tuesday showed orange sparks when the projectiles fired by CERU officers struck William. Wearing a COVID face mask and shorts, he charged down the stairs toward the guards carrying a makeshift shield and mop handle.
The guards surrounded William, repeatedly hitting him with their batons, until he is laid out on the ground. In a video shown on Day 1 of the trial last Friday, William could be heard yelling and telling the guards, “I can’t breathe.” They tell him to be quiet. “If you can talk you can breathe,” one guard yelled at him.
In the video Tuesday, guards are seen dragging a motionless William facedown into another room.
Crown attorney Jason Nicol, one of two prosecutors brought in from Ontario, told court William suffered cardiac arrest. The video Friday shows no one immediately administering CPR.
Vigorous CPR
Along with Kirouac, the paramedic, the video eventually shows guards taking turns administering vigorous CPR and fist-bumping each other when William’s heart starts beating again.
But the father of one died in hospital on Feb. 14, 2021 after Nicol said life support was discontinued.
“On February 7, 2021 an incident occurred at the jail,” said Darlene in a written statement shared with APTN News, “for 11 minutes my son’s heart stopped. Eventually he was revived and put on life support. “The doctors told us that he suffered damage to his brain and spine.”
Darlene said Will’s family is “committed to seeking justice” in both the criminal and civil courts. She said they have struggled since his death.
“It has been a horrible nightmare that we go through each day,” she wrote in the statement. “The pain and heartache is numbing. We still don’t have all the answers with what happened to Will. This tragedy has changed our lives forever.”
The trial before Judge Tony Cellitti is scheduled to take up to two weeks.