Warning: This story contains distressing details.
Video has been released showing the altercation and moments leading up to an inmate’s death at Headingley Correctional Centre in February 2021.
Robert Jeffrey Morden, a correctional officer at Headingley, is charged with criminal negligence causing death and failure to provide the necessaries of life in connection to the death of 45-year-old William Ahmo, an inmate at the jail who was originally from Sagkeeng First Nation.
The video from February 7, 2021 shows Ahmo in a common area of the prison, becoming agitated and aggressive while other inmates retreat to their cells. Ahmo stays in the common area of the jail.
He is seen pulling a hot water tank and TV monitors off the wall and using pieces of the broken items as weapons. At one point, he goes into a closet and breaks a mop in half, appearing to use that as a weapon.
He is also seen ramming a table against a protective glass window that correctional staff are standing behind. A crisis negotiator is heard trying to reason with Ahmo.
The standoff lasted for hours before the Correctional Emergency Response Unit, also known as CERU, goes in. The officers fire stun grenades and pepper spray in his direction. Ahmo comes at them swinging a weapon, and the officers swarm him and are seen hitting Ahmo with their batons.
They apprehend Ahmo and restrain him on the ground facedown. Ahmo is heard saying “I can’t breathe” a few times, and at one point Morden instructs the officers to ensure he can breathe.
During the trial, a correctional officer who testified said the words “I can’t breathe” are common to hear from someone who has been exposed to pepper spray.
The officers eventually turn Ahmo onto his side and started checking for a pulse. He later went unconscious and a code red is called.
Ahmo was taken to hospital but died a week later.
During the trial a pathologist testified that the cause of death was a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen, partially caused by how he was restrained by the officers.
The pathologist also testified that there were other contributing factors, including that Ahmo was agitated and exhausted from the ordeal, the fact pepper spray had been used, and that Ahmo had an enlarged heart and was overweight. Those were contributing factors, the pathologist testified, but not the direct cause of death.
He also stated Ahmo had other cuts, abrasions, and bruises on his body, but those did not contribute to his death. Court also heard that Ahmo had no drugs in his system at the time, other than ones that had been administered by a medical professional. He also had CPR-related fractures on his chest, but those were not connected to his cause of death.
The trial is continuing.