Video of Hyde's final moments shown at inquiry

Images of the struggle with corrections officers that preceded the death of Howard Hyde were shown at a public inquiry looking into the circumstances of how the mentally ill Nova Scotia man died.

The footage shows a scuffle Hyde had on Nov. 22, 2007, with guards at Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth moments before he lost consciousness and died.

Hyde, 45, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and died in a cell at the facility 30 hours after he was shocked by police with a stun gun.

The scuffle shown Thursday was the first of two Hyde had with the guards before entering the cell where he died. The inquiry has yet to see footage taken inside the cell.

The footage of the first struggle, which was shown for the first time Thursday, was recorded by a series of surveillance cameras inside the jail.

At the time, Hyde was under arrest for allegedly assaulting his common-law spouse, who had warned police her husband needed psychiatric help. She also told them he had stopped taking medication to control psychotic episodes caused by schizophrenia.

The inquiry, which started in July, is trying to determine why Hyde never received the help he needed and what can be done to prevent similar deaths in the future.

Video shows Hyde handcuffed, struggling

The video shown at the inquiry opens with two shadowy figures standing at the end of a long, windowless hallway.

A corrections officer can be seen raising his arm and pointing five times as he apparently instructs Hyde to walk down the hallway. The video does not have sound.

At one point, the officer appears to summon a colleague, corrections officer Renee Jones, who approaches and places her hand on Hyde's back.

"That's when he pulled away, completely and abruptly," Jones told the inquiry. "He was attempting to flee the admitting area."

Within seconds, the three are in a struggle, and Hyde is forced to the floor and his hands are cuffed behind his back, though it is hard to precisely tell what is going on because of the poor picture quality.

Jones testified that Hyde, who had a portly build, demonstrated great strength during the brief tussle.

"All I can recall is trying to control his arm," she said.

Hyde was on his back at one point, Jones said, grabbing at the two officers before another eight guards rushed to their aid.

She said that at no time did she see any of the officers place their weight on Hyde's back.

In the video, Hyde is quickly raised to his feet, then pulled backward down the hallway toward the camera. Two guards have their arms interlocked with Hyde's.

The inquiry has heard evidence that Hyde continued to struggle and was again forced to the floor in a nearby cell, Search Room No. 2, where he blacked out and never regained consciousness.

A coroner later listed the cause of death as excited delirium stemming from paranoid schizophrenia.

Guards not trained to handle mentally ill

Jones said she recalled seeing the officer who subdued Hyde, Todd Henwood, kneeling next to the man with his hands on the handcuffs.

But lawyer Kevin MacDonald, who represents Hyde's sister and brother-in-law, pointed out that Jones failed to mention that key detail when she gave a statement to the RCMP shortly after Hyde's death.

Still, Jones insisted that her recollection was clear.

In earlier testimony, corrections officer Chris Dixon said he saw Henwood place his hands on the handcuffs, but he described the officer "straddling" Hyde's legs.

Dixon also testified that before the first scuffle, Hyde shouted that he didn't want to enter the hallway because there were "demons" there.

On Thursday, Jones testified that she heard Hyde yell something about being unable to join the RCMP because of his hair. But she said she didn't recall Hyde saying anything about demons.

Like most of the corrections officers who have testified at the inquiry, Jones said she was not formally trained to deal with the mentally ill.

Other corrections officers have testified that Hyde did not sleep the night before he died, instead pacing in circles while shouting and talking to himself.

On Wednesday, the nurse who admitted Hyde to the correctional facility, Sandra McLeod, confirmed she knew about a doctor's note saying Hyde needed a psychiatric assessment but didn't consider it an official physician's order.