Guard in charge the day Soleiman Faqiri died left out punching, key facts from report, jurors hear
Never-before-heard audio made public on Day 4 of inquest into 2016 death
WARNING: This story contains graphic details and images.
The guard in charge the day Soleiman Faqiri died left out of his report that the 30-year-old was swung at and punched multiple times in the head, an inquest has heard.
A recording of the never-before-heard interview by operational manager John Thompson, taken as part of an internal investigation, was played for jurors at the inquest into Faqiri's death on Thursday.
In the approximately 80-minute interview with a provincial corrections investigator, Thompson is cornered about swinging at Faqiri while escorting him from a shower down the hallway to a segregation cell at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ont., on the day he died.
"You attempt to strike him," the investigator says, referencing video of the incident. "Your hand swings at him. If he didn't duck, you would have hit him."
Thompson, who was one of two managers fired in the wake of Faqiri's death, claimed he never hit Faqiri but rather attempted to distract him after the mentally ill man spat at him.
At the time of his death, Faqiri, who suffered from schizoaffective disorder, was awaiting a medical evaluation at the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences. He had been charged with aggravated assault, assault, and uttering threats following an altercation with a neighbour, but had not been convicted of any crime.
His cause of death, previously deemed unascertained, was later deemed to be restraint in a face-down position and injuries from his struggle with guards on Dec. 15, 2016. No one was ever charged in his death.
WATCH | Video shows final moments before Faqiri's deadly restraint:
Thompson also admitted that a guard punched Faqiri at least three times in the head — something the investigator notes he failed to document in his report. The reason for the punches, Thompson claimed, was that Faqiri tried to bite a guard.
That too was never mentioned in his report.
The investigator also asks why guards, having brought Faqiri to the cell, didn't simply leave the cell and remove his handcuffs through the door, rather than taking Faqiri to the ground.
Thompson took a long pause before replying, "I don't remember why."
Jurors will not get to hear from Thompson directly at the inquest, as he died in 2021. A second manager fired is expected to appear later in the inquest.
During his interview, Thompson said he tried repeatedly to have an institutional crisis intervention team move Faqiri rather than leaving it to guards, but that the request was turned down.
"I tried to do the best I could to take a disturbed inmate that was in crisis and get him moved to a safe location," Thompson said. "He should have been moved to a mental health facility way before that."
Faqiri calm, cooperative before restraint: nurse
Jurors also heard audio from nurse Cathy Goard, who told an investigator she pleaded with a paramedic to do one final round of chest compressions as Faqiri lay unresponsive, hoping against hope that he might be revived.
"I'm begging you with my life for his mother and father," she told the paramedic.
Goard, a health care manager at the jail, knew by then there was no bringing Faqiri back. Still, the memory of speaking to his family and their belief that their son would be cared for if arrested, meant she had to try everything.
"I was praying for this man's life," she said.
The nurse's interview was given as part of the internal investigation five months after Faqiri's death. Goard herself was not present at the inquest Thursday.
During the approximately 90-minute long recording, Goard told the interviewer that Faqiri had been calm, compliant and attentive in the hours before he was violently restrained by guards.
WATCH | Guard's video captures Soleiman Faqiri's condition days before his death:
Goard had been off work for several days and said she assessed Faqiri in person on Dec. 13. By that point, a doctor inside the jail had ordered that he be moved to a segregation unit for further monitoring, and Goard wanted to see for herself if he could feasibly be moved.
Goard said she felt Faqiri was cooperative, maintained good eye contact, and that a transfer to the maximum segregation unit would be possible. The plan was to get him into a wheelchair, cover him with a sheet, get him into the shower and then into his cell.
Faqiri seemed to respond well when told of the plan, and told he would be given a Qur'an and food after the move.
Sometime after 1 p.m. on Dec. 15 — the day that would Faqiri's last — staff moved him as planned to the segregation unit known as 8-seg. Nearby inmates were asked to be quiet, staff were asked to give clear, short instructions and to engage Faqiri calmly, Goard said, and "everything was going according to plan."
'Etched in my mind'
Upstairs in 8-seg, however, correctional officers weren't happy to hear about the new arrival.
Faqiri was taken to a shower area and remained there for over an hour as guards pushed for a specialized unit known as ICIT to take him to his new cell. Goard didn't feel that was necessary, noting Faqiri had been successfully moved upstairs without the unit's help.
A psychologist offered Faqiri crackers and peanut butter to coax him from the shower and he willingly put his hands into the hatch to be handcuffed for the move.
Suddenly, Goard said, it seemed guards were moving Faqiri before the rest of the team was ready.
Jurors head Monday that Thompson said, "something to the effect of, 'f--k it, I'll just move him myself.'" Faqiri was barefoot when he was moved from the shower, wearing only boxers and at one point slipping on the wet floor.
What happened next was captured on video and shown at the inquest Monday.
By the time Goard was called again, Faqiri was on the floor of his cell, froth coming from his mouth.
"Your mind is baffled," she told the interviewer, recalling how she and other staff had spent the whole day on Faqiri's care and had successfully moved him just hours before.
"How does something like this happen?" she recalled thinking. "It's etched in my mind."
The interviewer asked why Faqiri hadn't simply be sent to the hospital given his condition. Goard replied that there had been problems with doing so in the past, with people taken there quickly being sent back.
Given Faqiri was in the throes of a mental health "emergency" prior to his death, he should have nevertheless been taken to a hospital, a forensic psychiatrist said Wednesday during his expert testimony.
Inquest raised at legislature
Faqiri's inquest was raised at the Ontario's legislature Thursday, with the Opposition NDP's critic for the the attorney general asking if the province would support reinvestigating his death.
"Mr. Faqiri's death demonstrates how harmful it is when mental health is criminalized in our justice system," Kristyn Wong-Tam said. "Ontarians deserve systemic change in our justice system and people in mental health crisis deserve help, not violence."
Solicitor General Michael Kerzner responded to Wong-Tam, saying it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing inquest, but that its purpose is to determine the circumstances of a death and not to lay blame.
"Any death is a tragedy," Kerzner said, adding the province is taking steps to improve corrections in Ontario to prevent future deaths, including hiring over 1,500 new people and investing in cultural supports.
"We will reduce where possible and eliminate inmate experience in segregation conditions," he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
