Officer found not guilty of manslaughter next witness at Abdirahman Abdi death inquest
Ottawa Const. Daniel Montsion did not testify at his own trial
The Abdirahman Abdi inquest is being livestreamed during the day here.
The Ottawa police officer who was found not guilty of manslaughter in the 2016 death of Abdirahman Abdi is slated to speak in public for the first time about the violent altercation.
Const. Daniel Montsion's account, if the schedule holds, could come on Thursday, the fourth day of a coroner's inquest examining the circumstances of Abdi's death.
It will follow the concluding testimony of former constable David Weir, who started his testimony on Wednesday and left the Ottawa Police Service earlier this year. Weir was the other officer involved in the altercation in front of Abdi's apartment building. Abdi was pronounced dead the next day.
The blows Montsion delivered to Abdi's head, using gloves with plastic knuckles, were a central focus of Montsion's trial.
The wide-ranging coroner's inquest is hearing from over two dozen witnesses and tasking five jurors with coming up with non-binding solutions for how to prevent deaths like Abdi's in the future. Abdi was a Somali-Canadian who suffered from mental health issues.
Police were called that day because Abdi had assaulted several people, including women he groped in and around a Hintonburg coffee shop.
So far, all of the inquest witnesses — three civilians plus Weir — have been people who testified during Montsion's trial.
But Montsion will be the first inquest witness who did not speak during the court case.
Tense cross-examination Thursday morning
The inquest saw its first tense exchanges Thursday morning during Weir's cross-examination by Lawrence Greenspon, the lawyer representing Abdi's family. The presiding officer at one point warned Weir not to get argumentative, but also counselled Greenspon at times about his approach.
Greenspon grilled Weir about how he interacted with Abdi before Abdi took off and the struggle in the apartment alcove happened. Weir said his first words to Abdi were to direct him to put his hands on a window so Weir could handcuff him.
"Those words were no effort to de-escalate, were they?" Greenspon demanded.
"They were not an effort to de-escalate, and they were certainly not an effort to escalate," Weir replied, before adding later: "There's no neglect of de-escalation because I haven't had an opportunity to even engage in that yet. I'm one person. I'm one person."
Things got testy again when Greenspon questioned Weir about his assertion that Abdi took a step in his direction. Weir said it happened as Abdi was wielding a heavy rubber construction pad over his head, and accused Greenspon of trivializing that detail.
Greenspon fired back that Weir never phrased it that way in a post-incident report.
"I did not write that," Weir agreed.
"Not only you didn't write it, sir, it didn't happen," Greenspon said.
"No, I'm not agreeing with that," Weir said.
Jury to weigh in on manner of death
In addition to making forward-looking recommendations, the inquest jurors are tasked with classifying the nature of Abdi's death — a requirement one inquest lawyer has suggested might not be simple.
Jurors have five definitions to choose from: natural causes, accident, suicide, homicide and undetermined.
A "homicide" finding would not come with any legal culpability, as inquests are not legal processes.
But it is defined during inquests as "an injury which was non-accidentally inflicted by a person other than the deceased."
Accidental death "is due to an external injury where no one foresaw, expected or intended the death," explained inquest lawyer Alessandra Hollands.
"And 'undetermined' is the category we use when there is inadequate evidence to classify manner," she said.
Deciding on the manner of death may require "more analysis" than the simple questions of where and when Abdi died, Hollands told jurors.
A pathologist will testify to help jurors in classifying Abdi's death.
What the judge in Montsion's trial said
Whatever the jurors' decision on manner of death, it will come in addition to the trial judge's determination on Montsion's actions the day Abdi was arrested.
Justice Robert Kelly found Montsion not guilty of manslaughter in 2020 and cited a number of factors in his decision.
Abdi died of cardiac arrest and had an underlying heart condition that, in the opinion of one medical witness during the trial, put Abdi at risk of cardiac arrest "at any time."
All of the events on the day of the arrest, not just the police altercation, were "essentially" contributing factors, Dr. Christopher Milroy also testified during the trial.
WATCH / The Abdirahman Abdi inquest has begun. Here's what you need to know:
As both the trial and inquest have heard, Abdi went through a lot even before his path crossed with Montsion.
"Let us assume that all that happened was he had the struggle in the café, he ran away, he was pepper sprayed [by Weir] and before he was confronted by the police outside 55 Hilda, would that of itself potentially have been sufficient for him to go into cardiac arrest?
"The answer is yes, it was," Milroy testified during the trial.
The Crown argued the head injuries Abdi sustained were a significant contributing cause of death.
Justice Kelly wrote that he could not agree, writing that "the interaction in the alcove was part of a series of events."
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