Mother files lawsuit alleging racist treatment led to death of Anishinaabe’s son at Headingley prison
WARNING: This story contains disturbing details.
A Winnipeg mother is suing the province of Manitoba and correctional officials, alleging racist treatment and excessive violence after she says the Anishinaabe father was shot at with objects and beaten by a group of guards. He died seven days later.
Darlene Ahmo, the mother of William Ahmo, filed a lawsuit alleging that about a dozen members of Headingley Correctional Institution’s Serious Incident Response Team shot Ahmo with projectile guns, then swarmed and killed him on February 7, 2021 beaten.
Officers “did not stop their attack until they had caused William to pass out,” according to the statement, filed Feb. 8 in the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench.
The allegations in the lawsuit have not been tested in court.
Ahmo, a 45-year-old father of one son and a member of the Sagkeeng First Nation, was rushed to the Health Sciences Center in Winnipeg on February 7, 2021 and died on February 14, 2021 without regaining consciousness.
The chief medical examiner performed an autopsy and ruled Ahmo’s death a homicide.
Correctional officer and leader of the SIR team, Robert Jeffrey Morden, was charged in January 2022 with criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide basic necessities upon Ahmo’s death.
Morden has pleaded not guilty. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 6.
The Ahmo family will not comment on the lawsuit, according to a statement emailed Monday by Corey Shefman, an attorney working for the family.
“We are committed to ensuring that Correctional Officer Robert Morden’s prosecution proceeds and that the full facts of William’s death are brought to light.
“Our family is dedicated to ensuring justice for William in both the criminal and civil justice system.”
“Racial Treatment” by Guards: Lawsuit
During his detention, Ahmo was reliant on the discretion of correctional officers, the allegation said, and he had no means of exiting a troubling situation in which “he was threatened with physical harm.”
The allegation says that on February 7, a correctional officer asked Ahmo and his cellmates if they wanted to hear a racist joke. But before any reply was given, the warden said: ‘How do you make an Aborigine angry? Hide his CERB check under his work boot,” the court filing said.
“The correctional officer’s ‘joke’ traded racist caricatures and stereotypes of tribal peoples as being lazy, poor, unemployed and relying on government handouts,” the allegation reads.
The claim outlined events after this exchange that allegedly led to Ahmo’s hospitalization and death.
According to the court filing, Ahmo and other inmates were able to leave their cells for recreational purposes shortly after the exchange.
Ahmo then banged on a glass-walled office and yelled that he was “sick and tired” of the racist way correctional officers treated inmates and were treated like “animals”, the allegation said.
Officers didn’t respond, so Ahmo kept shouting and throwing furniture in the common area in frustration, according to the claim.
All inmates were told to return to their respective cells. Everyone gave in except Ahmo.
With only Ahmo in the area, a nearby door was opened and chemical weapons, including pepper spray, were aimed at Ahmo if he approached the door, the allegation said.
The allegation said Ahmo and a correctional officer’s supervisor had a brief chat through the door before the SIR team gathered behind the glass wall.
“They wore armor and other combat gear and carried a variety of weapons, including batons, rifles, sensory deprivation weapons such as ‘flash grenades,’ and pellet guns,” the court filings say.
Some officers fired projectile weapons through a cannon port at Ahmo, and about a dozen of them entered the area and used multiple weapons on him, according to court records.
The allegation states that the officers surrounded Ahmo and beat him with batons, knees, hands and feet, which caused Ahmo to lose consciousness.
He received medical attention before being taken to hospital, the claim said.
Officers, Province Negligent: Court Records
The allegation states that correctional officers used “excessive force” in treating Ahmo, while “acting negligently and in a manner inconsistent with the standard of care they owed William”.
The provincial government breached its duty to Ahmo and is “performatively liable for the negligent conduct” of the correctional officers, the lawsuit said.
The allegation also alleges that Manitoba failed to properly train officers in the use of force, failed to implement policies to ensure the appropriate use of force, and provided insufficient supervision of Serious Response Incidents members.
The province is named as one of the defendants in the lawsuit but is not commenting on the matter as it stands before the court, a spokesman said via email on Monday.
The claim states that Ahmo would not have died if the guards had not “used extreme force” in their attack on him.
Plaintiff is seeking non-pecuniary damages, as well as damages for breach of fiduciary duty, court costs and recovery of GST on all amounts awarded.
Ahmo’s mother is also suing for damages for the “callous, harsh and racist treatment” of her son by prison officials.
No statement of defense has been filed by any of the defendants.
