Solomon Uyarasuk inquest: Neighbour called RCMP due to noise

Solomon Uyarasuk's neighbour says he called the RCMP in September 2012 about his drinking neighbours because he didn't want anyone to get hurt.

David Nutarakittuq was testifying Monday at the coroner’s inquest into the death of Uyarasak in RCMP cells in Igloolik, Nunavut, two years ago.

Nutarakittuq says he was sleeping when he and his common-law spouse were woken at around 4 a.m. by the noise from next door. 

"We went into the living room and I put all the lights on and they were very noisy, like they were in our house," he testified in Inuktitut.

"My spouse wanted to call the police right away. I told her we'd wait a bit to see how the noise would be. There were two children who were sleeping and we didn't want to call the RCMP right away."

Nutarakittuq said the drinkers next door got worse and worse and he wanted to call the RCMP before someone got hurt. 

He says when RCMP were knocking on Uyarasuk's door, he could hear people running inside the house. 

"I could hear [Uyarasuk] in English that he was crying and he didn't want to be arrested because the last time he had his head hit on cement," he said.

Nutarakittuq says they thought he was in safe hands and they would see him again tomorrow. Nutarakittuq says he didn't know Uyarasuk had died until Nutarakittuq's younger brother visited them the following afternoon.

"Maybe if I didn't call the RCMP, maybe he would be alive today," he said, his voice breaking. "Maybe if I didn't call the RCMP this sort of thing wouldn't happen."

Donna Keats, the lawyer for the RCMP, asked Nutarakittuq if it was unusual to hear noise from next door. He replied that they drank and got pretty wild, but he had never seen Uyarasuk drunk.

Nutarakittuq said that was the wildest night of them drinking.

"When he was sober he was a very good man," he said. "He was a nice guy. He wasn't drinking every night. He was one of the youth people in the circus. He wasn't an alcoholic." 

Phillip Angnetsiak, who was drinking with Uyarasuk that night from 11 p.m. on, says they turned down the music right away when the cops arrived.

Angnetsiak said it was his first time drinking with Uyarasuk and that he had never seen him drunk before. He said he was surprised by how he acted and that Uyarasuk didn't have a reputation as a drinker. 

Angnetsiak testified one officer put Uyarasuk on the ground and the other tried to handcuff him. Uyarasuk was pinned on the ground with one of the officer's knees on his back. He says Uyarasuk's face seemed all right when he left.

Keats asked him if they were talking about personal matters that night, including a previous suicide attempt of Uyarasuk's. 

Angnetsiak said he's not sure if that was upsetting Uyarasuk​. He said he didn't know why Uyarasuk got upset.

"There were many things he had been upset about. There were many things that were hurting him." 

The inquest continues Tuesday.