Intense sadness and anger were the dominant emotions at a vigil on Tuesday in memory of Yves Sakila (35) who died after being restrained by security guards in Dublin city centre on Friday afternoon.
The Congolese man, who had lived in Ireland since 2004, had been homeless for several years.
He had been in prison a number of times and last lived in a Salvation Army hostel in Dublin 1.
Staff at the charity’s Granby Centre, where he lived for two years, spoke to him on Friday morning before he left.
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“That was the last time they saw him,” said a spokesman.
Staff described him as a “pleasant and quiet” resident who had a “deep interest in technology and sometimes attended prayer services”.
Sakila was allegedly involved in a shoplifting incident on Henry Street before attempting to flee around 5pm on Friday.
He was held on the ground outside Arnotts department store by a number of men, in an incident that was filmed and shared on messaging apps over the weekend.
Described as “very upsetting” and “awful” by members of the Congolese community, the almost four-minute video which starts as the incident is already ongoing, shows Sakila moaning in distress as his face is pushed into the pavement. At one point a security guard appears to kneel on his head or neck.
More than 100 people, including many members of the wider community, gathered from noon on Tuesday with flowers and cards at the site.
Arnotts closed its Henry Street entrance for the duration as numerous gardaí looked on, with more on adjoining streets.
“We need justice for our brother,” said Chris Kibidi, a facilities operative with MetroLink, who last saw his friend a few years ago.
“He was a nice guy. There is much to say but I am speechless right now. I am shocked. I am shaking. Maybe he shoplifted but whatever he did ...we need justice for him. We are not here to break anything. We are here for justice.”
Several people laid flowers – single red roses, white lilies and carnations – at the foot of a lamp-post near the ground where Sakila was held.
Antoinette Lukeba, an older woman who knew Sakila from the Zion Church he sometimes worshipped at in Clondalkin, knelt prostrate at the flowers and wept as she prayed in the Central African Lingala language.
“Why? Why? Why?” she wailed, gesticulating and crying. She said afterwards she had been “praying as a mother, praying for mothers”. She led members of the African community in singing a Christian lament.
Lizette, who came to Ireland from Congo when she was 13, did “not feel safe to give” her surname. “Something like this happening, [we are] just questioning for all of us if we are safe in this country.
“I understand he was probably shoplifting. I don’t understand exactly what happened, but the video evidence is enough. It is atrocious, it is awful to see what happened. I would like see people held accountable.”
Georgette, who did not give her surname, came to Ireland in 1998 and works for An Post.
“We have racism every day, everywhere we go – shops, the streets, but we keep quiet. We don’t want any trouble. We just leave it. I have two adult children born here, I worry for our children, especially for our boys.
“We were feeling this is our country where we can live but we are not safe any more.”
Boma Biansolo was at the vigil with her eight-year-old son. “I came here because ... my brother [died] here on Friday and no one tried to help him or save him ... Of course I am scared for my son because that happened.”
Other nationalities attended including Thais Mumiz, a black woman from Brazil. She was there “as a person who cares” about social justice.
“Being here is just the least I can do. People who look like me are higher targets to this kind of violence, so I am here to protest and pay my condolences to this brother who died.”
An older, Irish woman said she “couldn’t stay in bed after what had happened ... I look out the window and what I have seen over the years being done to young, black Dublin children and teenagers is so painful ... Racism is a big problem.”
Nessan Vaughan, a retired public servant, said he was there “to show white Irish people are disgusted too by what happened”.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, Arnotts said it was deeply saddened by Sakila’s death following a “serious incident that occurred outside our Henry Street” last Friday.
“No loss of life should ever be the outcome of a retail security incident. We recognise the deep hurt and concern this tragedy has caused within Dublin’s Congolese community and among the wider public, and we take those concerns with the utmost seriousness,” it said.
The company said it was ”actively cooperating" with the Garda investigation into Sakila’s death and “conducting a full review with the independently contracted security firm” that provides in-store security services for Arnotts.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Tuesday described the circumstances of Sakila’s death as “an issue of the deepest concern” which needs to be “thoroughly and fully investigated”.
He was responding in the Dáil to Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who said footage of the moments leading up to his death was “very distressing and disturbing”.
Martin said “everybody is deeply saddened that the person has lost his life” and that the manner it occurred in “has caused huge concern across society”.
The Irish Times understands the postmortem on the dead man’s remains has proven inconclusive relating to a cause of death. Gardaí are awaiting the results of toxicology tests, which may offer further information.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) described the level of force used by security guards to restrain Sakila as “disproportionate and excessive”
Sakila had previously come to the Garda’s attention. He was most recently convicted of shoplifting at Dublin District Court and fined €110 in January for stealing perfume valued at €106 from Arnott’s Henry Street.
In 2018, he was sentenced to a period of just over one year after being convicted of robbery. He spent further time in custody since completing that sentence, including three months last year for theft offences.
A spokesman for the Salvation Army said the charity was “shocked and saddened” by Sakila’s death.
“Mr Sakila had been living at The Granby Centre – one of five homeless hubs operated by the church and charity in Dublin – since 2024,“ he said. “We would like to express our deepest condolences to Yves’s family and friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time.”
