Bridgehead customers tried to restrain Abdirahman Abdi before fatal confrontation with police

A man who died after what witnesses described as a violent arrest had been removed from an Ottawa coffee shop and kept outside after a woman said he touched her inappropriately, according to a customer there at the time.

• TIMELINE: Abdirahman Abdi's fatal encounter with Ottawa Police
• 'Patient is VSA': Dispatch calls from Ottawa man's fatal encounter with police
• 2 officers under investigation in death of Ottawa man identified

Abdirahman Abdi, a 37-year-old Somali Canadian man with mental health issues, died Monday, a day after he was arrested outside his apartment building.

Ontario's Special Investigations Unit is investigating his death and the circumstances that led to it.

Police said they were called to the Bridgehead coffee shop at the downtown intersection of Wellington Street West and Fairmont Avenue at 9:30 a.m. after a report of a man groping a customer.

Their response led to a pursuit to 55 Hilda Street, where Abdi was detained by two officers in what some people in the area have described as a violent arrest.

• Witness describes fatal confrontation between Abdirahman Abdi and police
• Ottawa police union president calls racism speculation in fatal arrest 'inappropriate'​
• LISTEN: Audio of the paramedic dispatch calls

'Call the police, call the police'

JM Duval was sitting in the back section of the coffee shop that morning when he said he heard a commotion at the front of the store.

Though he couldn't see what happened, he said he could hear tables moving and people very agitated.

"I heard several men saying, 'Call the police, call the police,'" Duval said. He said he saw a man he identified as Abdi run out of the coffee shop, only to try to come back in, but that several men at the front of the shop were preventing him.

While this was happening, Duval said two women took another woman from the front of the coffee shop to the back section.

Customers tried to keep suspect on site

Duval said the woman was Francophone and did not speak English very well, but when he asked her in French what happened, she told him that a man had touched her inappropriately.

"She was quite under a state of shock when that happened," Duval said. 

"She was quite shaken by the event but she was able to stay in the restaurant and finish what she ordered."

Duval said staff at the Bridgehead decided to put the restaurant in a "lockdown" mode, keeping customers and staff inside and others outside until the police arrived.

Meanwhile, outside the coffee shop, he said several men were trying to keep the man on site until police arrived.

"He was violent, he was fairly aggressive in nature, from what I could see, but I did not hear him speak anything," Duval said. "He was waving his arms trying to defend himself from the patrons who were trying to keep him at the site."

Customers talked about mental illness

Duval said inside the coffee shop he heard several patrons say the man had a history of mental illness — but he did not know if that information was communicated to police.

Duval said he did not see police arrive and did not see the interaction that led to the pursuit some 250 metres away to Hilda Street.

Customers were allowed to leave the shop shortly after police arrived, and that's when Duval left.

'More questions than answers'

Several groups, including the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, have called on the SIU to conduct a transparent investigation into Abdi's arrest and death.

Abdi lived at 55 Hilda Street, in the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization non-profit housing apartment building, along with his family. 

OCISO executive director Leslie Emory said people need to wait for the SIU investigation before rushing to judgement. But she said people in the immigrant refugee community are concerned about what happened.

"Something has happened here and it's tragic, and it can call into question their safety and it may bring up some prior concerns or fears that they've had, and we need to support them to address those," Emory said.

"That's why we have to be very deliberate in exploring what was the scenario for him, what factors led to the incident that resulted in his death. Were there mental health issues? Disabilities? Was there racism involved? And what else?

"Right now, we have more questions than answers. And I think the community needs to work together to get the answers and support for the community to go forward," she said.