Inquest called into inmate’s death, months after guard acquitted

Manitoba’s chief medical examiner has called an inquest into a fatal incident that led to a jail guard being tried and acquitted of criminal charges.

The inquest will try to determine the circumstances regarding the death of Headingley Correctional Centre inmate William Ahmo in 2021.

He died in hospital on Feb. 14. On Feb. 7, the Sagkeeng First Nation man was shackled, pinned to the ground, placed in a spit hood and strapped into a restraint chair in the common area of his unit after a standoff with jail guards.

The chief medical examiner deemed the death a homicide. Ahmo, 45, died from a brain injury caused by a heart attack as he struggled to breathe, court heard at the trial of Robert Jeffrey Morden.

Morden, who led the tactical team that responded to the standoff, pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessities of life. He was acquitted last September.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of Ahmo’s mother in February 2023 alleges the provincial government and jail guards were negligent and breached their duty of care for the inmate, among other claims of mistreatment and racism. The government has yet to respond in civil court.

Five other inquests announced Monday involve Stony Mountain Institution inmates who hanged themselves in their cells between March and December of 2020. Another involves a Stony inmate deemed to have died from an accidental drug overdose in November 2021.

All seven inquests are required because the men who died were inmates.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca