Warning: This story contains graphic videos of violence and death.
Ebun Joseph says that every time he watches the video of Yves Sakila being held face down by at least five men until his body goes limp, he feels sick to his stomach.
Sakila, 35, a Congolese man, died last Friday after being stopped by security guards outside a supermarket in Dublin. A surveillance video shows a man in a suit gently pushing his knee into the back of Sakila’s neck.
“We are talking about human life,” said Joseph, who is Ireland’s special rapporteur on race equality and discrimination. As It Happened hosted by Nil Kӧksal. “I’m not even speaking as a special rapporteur. I’m speaking as a human being.”
As It Happened6:35As the death of a black man in Ireland sparks protests, the special spokesperson for racism is speaking out.
The video sparked widespread outrage in Ireland. Hundreds of people protested outside the country’s parliament on Thursday demanding justice. Joseph was among them.
“There was a lot of despair. There was a lot of pain. There was a lot of anger. There was a lot of fear — palpable fear,” he said of the atmosphere at the protest. “The fear of the future, since what future do we have?”
The police have started an investigation into Sakila’s death, and the police investigator is investigating the police who arrived first at the scene. Department store Arnotts said it was cooperating with the police and conducting a review of its private security services.
‘Early Guy’
Sakila was chased and arrested on May 15 by several security guards who accused him of shoplifting in Arnotts.
Attorney John Gerard Cullen, who represents the man’s family, said Sakila was suspected of stealing a bottle of perfume from the store.
The footage shows Sakila screaming in agony as she is held by several men, some in suits, for about five minutes.
At the end of the video, he is motionless. He did not respond when the police arrived, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The CBC has not independently verified the bystander’s video. However, the Reuters newswire service confirmed the location from buildings, sidewalks and utility poles seen in the video, which is consistent with archival footage of the area.
The date on which the video was recorded was also confirmed by an official statement from the Irish police.
WARNING: This is a graphic video of a man being banned. Eyewitness footage from Friday, May 15, shows security guards stopping Yves Sakila, a 35-year-old man of Congolese origin, in a shopping street in Dublin. Sakila became unresponsive at the scene and it was concluded that he had died. Reuters confirmed the location from buildings, sidewalks and utility poles seen in the video, along with archival footage of the area.
The police said that the investigation of the body has been completed, but they have not yet released the cause of his death, citing operational reasons.
Cullen said Sakila’s family is frustrated with the limited information provided.
“We’re calling this the George Floyd moment,” said David Kaliba, a 35-year-old physics student who attended a high school in north Dublin with Sakila.
Floyd, a black man from Minneapolis, was killed in May 2020 by a police officer who knelt on his neck for several minutes during an arrest. His death fueled the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States and sparked nationwide protests against police brutality and racism.
“I can’t believe it’s happening in America in 2020 and it’s happening in Ireland in 2026,” said Kaliba.
Walter Kabangu, director of the Congolese Chamber of Commerce in Ireland who also studied with Sakila, described him as “a very down-to-earth guy.”
Sakila’s classmate said she moved to Ireland from the Democratic Republic of Congo more than 20 years ago and worked in the technology industry before becoming homeless in recent years.
Cullen said Sakila had a problem with drug addiction.
‘Justice should be for all’
The police said that when Sakila was running away from the guards, he hit an 80-year-old man who was injured in the hospital.
The Irish Mirror has identified the man as an 86-year-old retired priestand reports of a broken hip. His wife told this newspaper that it is not clear who humiliated her husband, but she forgives whoever it was.
Joseph says that those who focus on the theft and the injured man are avoiding the issue at hand.
“It’s not about what he did. This is not the forest,” said Joseph. “The West prides itself on equality and justice. And justice cannot be selective. Justice must be for all people.”
Prime Minister Micheal Martin is one of the Irish lawmakers who have called for a full investigation into Sakila’s death.
“My deepest sympathies go out to his family, and to the entire Congolese community,” Martin said. “Obviously a lot of people are very concerned about what happened here.”
Joseph is asking the authorities to inform the public as the investigation continues.
He also asked the public not to let the story of Sakila’s death go out of the news and not be seen as the investigation continues.
“We have this outcry, you know, social media outrage, media everywhere. But, you know, it doesn’t last forever,” she said.
“We have to look at everything. We have to monitor everything carefully.”
Speech against immigrants
He also says it is time for Ireland to reflect on what he sees as a rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric that is undermining the country’s hard-fought progress in fighting racism.
Anti-immigrant protests have become more common in Ireland in recent years, including riots in central Dublin in 2023, near where Sakila died.
He says Irish lawmakers are using immigration as a “political stepping stone,” promising to ignore it to advance their careers.
“Immigration is not a thing. It is the life of people. Behind that word, migration, there are families, sons, daughters, mothers, children – people.”
