{"id":461038,"date":"2026-05-22T02:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T02:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461038\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T02:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T02:03:15","slug":"protesters-condemn-irelands-george-floyd-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461038\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters condemn Ireland\u2019s \u2018George Floyd moment\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Congolese man who had been living in Ireland for 20 years died after being violently restrained by security guards after an alleged shoplifting incident.<\/p>\n

Footage of the incident showed Yves Sakila, 35, calling for help as he was pinned down for several minutes by at least five security guards. The knee of one guard was pushed on to Sakila\u2019s neck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sakila eventually became unresponsive and was taken to Dublin\u2019s Mater Hospital, where he was pronounced dead last Friday.<\/p>\n

\t\tDublin suspected shoplifter death<\/p>\n

Anti-racism campaigners described the footage, which was widely circulated on social media, as reminiscent of the death in the United States of George Floyd in 2020. Floyd, 46, died after being arrested by police outside a shop in Minnesota, prompting widespread protests under the Black Lives Matter banner<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Irish parliament on Thursday, holding \u201cJustice for Yves\u201d posters. A sign placed outside the Arnotts department store on Henry Street, where Sakila was detained, read: \u201cBlack lives matter here too.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Kaliba, a 35-year-old physics student who went to school with Sakila, said: \u201cWe call this a George Floyd moment. I can\u2019t believe it happened in America in 2020 and happened in Ireland in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish Network Against Racism said that the case had the \u201challmarks of a case of excessive use of force\u201d and that the death of a black man in such circumstances was \u201cextremely worrying\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"PeopleNatalia Campos\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\"ANatalia Campos\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\"PeopleBrian Lawless\/PA<\/p>\n

Sakila, who was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo but grew up in Galway, had one previous shoplifting conviction, having experienced challenges with homelessness and drug use.<\/p>\n

A Garda spokesman said a man in his eighties was injured as the suspect attempted to flee the scene and was later taken to hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. According to reports, when officers arrived, they handcuffed Sakila before realising he was unresponsive and performing CPR. The Garda has referred itself to Ireland\u2019s police watchdog regarding the incident.<\/p>\n

The spokesman said a post-mortem examination had been completed, \u201cthe results of which are not being released for operational reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n

Arnotts said it was \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by the events, adding: \u201cNo 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\u2019s Congolese community and among the wider public, and we take those concerns with the utmost seriousness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Floyd was arrested in Minneapolis over his suspected use of a counterfeit $20 bill. A white police, officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck<\/a> while he was pinned to the ground, as Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe. His death prompted widespread protests across the world against police brutality and racism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Congolese man who had been living in Ireland for 20 years died after being violently restrained by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-461038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}