By Conor Humphries and Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN, May 20 (Reuters) – 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, an incident that has shocked the country’s small Congolese community.
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 held on the ground by a number of people for almost five minutes. At one point one of them appeared to kneel on his head or neck.
“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.
FLOWERS LAID AT THE SCENE
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.
“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.
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.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries; editing by Gus Trompiz)
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