‘A very unexpected tragedy’: How Abdi’s family tried to help him in the months before his death [Video]

The Abdirahman Abdi inquest is being livestreamed during the day here. 

The coroner’s inquest into the death of Abdirahman Abdi took an intensely personal turn on Wednesday, focusing on the 38-year-old Somali-Canadian’s history of mental illness in the lead-up to his fateful encounter with Ottawa police. 

Abdi, 38, died on July 25, 2016, a day after his violent arrest by two Ottawa police officers. 

The inquest has heard that Abdi got married in Ethiopia in 2015 and then returned to Canada later that year. That’s when he became silent and reclusive, according to remarks given by his family’s lawyer. 

As inquest lawyer Alessandra Hollands said in her own opening remarks last week: “It’s important to understand the circumstances leading up to [the day of his arrest].”

On Wednesday, an agreed statement of facts about Abdi’s mental health history, as well as testimony from a psychiatrist who treated him, offered unprecedented context about Abdi, his concerning behaviour and his …