'Gentle giant' rugby player Samuel Diatta collapsed outside luxury jewellery store Mappin & Webb in York.It's this case, which is still dragging on for the men involved.
At an inquest opening, coroner, Jonathan Leach said Mr Diatta, from York, died of hypertensive heart disease and the effects of being restrained.
Why would a 'gentle giant' need to be restrained?
In a previous statement, Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Steve Menzies said: 'A 999 call was received by police at 4.41pm and officers arrived at the scene at 4.46pm. 'Mr Diatta entered the store and became involved in an altercation with a member of security staff.
'This escalated resulting in the staff member being injured and Mr Diatta being restrained on the floor by a member of the shop staff and three members of the public.'
'As with any unexpected death of this nature, a police investigation is required to establish the facts, to establish whether or not there is any criminality relating to the death, and to get the answers for Mr Diatta's family and for those involved in the incident, and for the Coroner.'
The answers would appear to be 'don't start fights with security staff if you've got a weak heart', wouldn't they?
Not the first of these cases; back in 2014, a robber was pinned down during a raid on a jewellers in Oxford and died of a heart attack (he was 33 and weighed 18 stone). Fortunately for the members of the public who had restrained him, the pathologist at the inquest was adamant that the man’s heart was in such bad shape that he could have died in his sleep at any time, leading to a verdict if ‘death by misadventure’.
ReplyDeleteI wondered at the time whether steroid abuse played a part in the man’s death; perhaps this strikingly similar case involving a sportsman should raise the same questions.
He had "a coincidence" as heart attacks are now called. Probably lack of statins or climate change.
ReplyDeletei get the impression (maybe wrong, I dunno), that if this was America, the police would have drawn a line under it before bedtime and none of the people who helped the security guard would have been arrested for anything
ReplyDelete"I wondered at the time whether steroid abuse played a part in the man’s death; perhaps this strikingly similar case involving a sportsman should raise the same questions."
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the coroner will investigate that possibility?
"He had "a coincidence" as heart attacks are now called. Probably lack of statins or climate change."
Indeed!
".. the police would have drawn a line under it before bedtime.."
Especially in Memphis! 😂