Gardaí seek young woman knocked down in Yves Sakila incident to speak to investigators

Gardaí investigating the death of Yves Sakila on Dublin’s Henry Street in May have issued a renewed appeal for witnesses, including asking for a woman in her late teens or early 20s to come forward.During the incident, “a male and a female” were knocked to the ground, gardaí said in a press release, but while they have spoken to the man, they have yet to reach the woman.Sakila, who was Congolese and was in his mid-30s, was suspected of shoplifting from Arnotts and was pursued by security personnel on May 15th at around 5pm. When gardaí arrived on the scene, Sakila had been held on the ground by a group of security guards for a period.READ MOREThe responding gardaí handcuffed Sakila in an apparent bid to get control of the situation and attend to the injured pensioner.However, almost immediately after the handcuffs were applied, gardaí realised Sakila was unwell, removed the handcuffs and began performing CPR. He was then taken to the Mater hospital where he was later pronounced dead.Video footage of the first part of the incident, involving a group of men restraining the deceased, circulated on messaging apps. It showed the group, at least some of whom are security personnel, holding Sakila to the ground as he is face down on the pedestrianised street.The woman gardaí wish to speak to was described as “a white female, dark hair, in her late teens to early twenties, wearing a khaki-coloured waist length coat, black crop T-shirt, blue jeans cut at the knees and black Adidas runners”. The Justice for Yves Sakila Campaign organised a March for Justice in peaceful protest following the death. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times “After being knocked to the ground she got up herself and stayed around for a few minutes before making her way to O’Connell Street,” gardaí said.The force asked that she contact the investigation team at Store Street Garda Station, the Garda confidential line or any Garda station.It also said that investigating gardaí “believe that there are also still other persons who were in the area at the time who have not come forward”. They encouraged them to do so.Gardaí received the results of a postmortem investigation but have not released them for operational reasons.The high-profile death of Sakila led to protests on the streets of Dublin in its wake attended by members of the Congolese and other African communities as well as members of the wider public.The Congolese minister for foreign affairs, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, met Sakila’s family and Irish ministers over the matter on a visit to Ireland.Ebun Joseph, the special rapporteur on racism, called for an “urgent” independent investigation into the incident, expressing “profound shock and grave concern”.