Family of ‘gentle, smart’, Yves Sakila face agonizing wait for answers on his death

Flowers left at the scene on Henry St where Yves Sakila was restrained, and later died. The incident has made headlines internationally. File picture: Sam Boal/Collins

Angel Issemezey Anzibi, the only mother Yves Sakila really knew, has described the unimaginable pain of entering the city morgue in Dublin to identify his remains.

“He looked like he was sleeping,” she said.

“It was like a dream that I hoped I would wake from. I spoke to him, told him I loved him, and spent twenty minutes with him, with his sister.”

The grief inside the family home in Dublin was overwhelming when the Irish Examiner met Yves’s loved ones. Family members drifted in and out of rooms quietly, still trying to piece together what happened in the final moments of his life.

Yves, aged 35, died at the Mater hospital after an altercation involving security guards on Henry St in Dublin City Centre.

He was restrained on the ground, outside Arnotts department store on Friday, May 15, while emergency services were called following a suspected shoplifting incident.

The incident, which lasted more than 4 minutes, was videoed by onlookers on their phones.

The death of Mr Sakila has garnered international headlines — in the Washington Post, CBC News, The Guardian, and the BBC — with the case described as “Ireland’s George Floyd moment”, a reference to the killing of an African American man by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

While the full details of the case involving Mr Sakila have still to emerge, both incidents were captured on video and resulted in protests and political debate.

However, inside Yves Sakila’s home, a family is trying to understand how a vulnerable young man they loved ended up dead.

Angel learned about her son’s death when the gardaí called to her house at 1am on May 16. “They just said, ‘Yves is dead’ and I was so distressed, asking what happened, when, who, what?”

Angel first met Yves Sakila when he was 13 years old. His biological father had died in the Congo, and his biological mother was struggling.

Yves and his sister were later brought to Ireland by their uncle through a family reunification programme and Angel reared them.

“They were children. They came to the house and became my children too. I love them so much.”

The family settled into life in Dublin and Yves has been here since 2004. Angel worked hard building a life here, eventually becoming a home carer.

Alison O Reilly speaking to members of Yves Sakila’s family at their home in Dublin. ‘He knew we loved him’, his mother Angel said. Picture: Gareth Chaney

Her children flourished academically. One daughter went on to complete a degree in social work and progress to a Masters. Another daughter plans to do a postgraduate study in physiotherapy.

Her youngest son, still only 17, entered engineering studies early because of his academic ability. Her eldest boy lives abroad as does Yves’s sister.

Yves, she said, was bright too.

“He was very intelligent. Very smart with electronics,” she recalled. “He could fix televisions, beds, machines — anything. He was a good boy.”

Others around the table nodded in agreement. “He was articulate,” one family supporter added. “When he was well, he could hold a proper conversation with anybody.”

She was proud to show his qualifications, but as the children excelled, some instability grew inside Yves. He struggled with Angel’s marital breakup and displacement from his biological family.

“He was disturbed by all of that,” she said.

Eventually, Yves drifted away from home. At just 16 years old Angel engaged with social services and, he entered foster care.

“He went off the rails after that,” said Angel. “He was too old to go into care really, the damage was done, but he was in a dangerous place mentally and he needed protection. The social workers were aware of the difficulties in my marriage.”

Despite periods of homelessness, addiction, and petty criminal convictions, Angel insists he never stopped being part of the family. “All the time he came home,” she said.

“He came for food. He came to see us. He helped around the house. He was always my child.”

She described him arriving at the house asking for large bowls of fufu and beans, laughing with younger siblings and helping repair things around the home.

“He was polite, gentle, and quiet,” she said.

“Life just went the wrong way for him.”

Those close to Yves say he struggled to fully recover from his years in care, and a fractured family life, and he increasingly became vulnerable on Dublin’s streets.

Community leader and chairperson of the Africa Solidarity Centre Ireland Lassane Quedraogo said he had known Yves for years through outreach work supporting migrants, asylum seekers, and vulnerable young people.

Just days before his death, Lassane said he had spoken to him.

“I was convincing him to come into the office so we could help him,” he said. “He promised he would come back.”

Instead, days later, he was dead.

“He was lovely,” he said. “Gentle, smart, failed by the system.”

The exact circumstances surrounding Yves’ death remain under investigation. The family’s solicitor, John Gerard Cullen, outlined a series of concerns and unanswered questions.

“What requires seven persons to restrain one man over an alleged theft of perfume?” he asked.

Angel says watching the footage of the incident has traumatised her.

“Looking at the video, it has been killing me,” she said.

Why are six people on top of him? He was already down. Then the garda comes and sits on him too.

Fighting tears, she repeatedly returned to the same point: even if her son had stolen something, he did not deserve to die.

“That’s very wrong to go to a shop and take something,” she said. “But we have police. Arrest him. Give him to the police.”

Mr Cullen said that the gardaí were asked a series of questions in an ‘information’ meeting with members of the family this week.

Among the questions was whether the perfume bottle allegedly stolen was ever recovered, whether fingerprints were taken from it, whether CCTV timelines have been independently verified, and whether security staff should have continued pursuing Yves onto the street at all.

“There are major questions about the proportionality of the actions taken in apprehending Mr Sakila regarding perfume while no arrests have apparently been made regarding the death of Mr Sakila,” he said.

“The family has been provided with no precise information. There is also no information on the preliminary pathologist’s report.

“Was there a 999 call? Was it a call for CPR?”

“We have, arguably, only generalities — with no precise information.”

Mr Sakila was described as ‘polite, gentle, and quiet' by his relatives. Picture: Gareth Chaney

The family say they are concerned that no arrests have been made more than a week after Yves’ death.

Meanwhile, the family claim they became embroiled in distressing disputes over DNA testing and the release of his body from the morgue.

Concerns have also emerged that multiple individuals outside Ireland had contacted authorities claiming to be next of kin.

“At least three people whom Yves didn’t know, and who never contacted the family when he was here, were looking for his body,” said Mr Cullen.

Mr Cullen said the family remained concerned about delays, after being told toxicology results could take up to 12 weeks.

The situation has now escalated to the point where representatives from the Congolese Embassy travelled from London to Dublin to support the family directly.

The embassy representatives met both the family and investigators to discuss their concerns.

Dublin demonstrations 

Demonstrations took place in Dublin City centre amid accusations of racism and excessive force.

But inside the family home, relatives appeared wary of political opportunism. 

“People are trying to hijack this. This is not about politics. This is about humanity,” Lassane said.

The family had originally planned to go to the protest held last Thursday outside government buildings but felt it was “too political”.

Lassane stressed the importance of allowing investigators to complete their work while still demanding accountability.

“It could happen to anybody,” he said.

“This is not just about black people or African people only but also about the wider community and the society as a whole.”

The family also expressed concern over online speculation, misinformation and individuals speaking publicly despite having no close relationship with Yves.

Angel herself has become increasingly overwhelmed by the attention. Again and again, she returned not to politics but to motherhood.

“You know,” she said, “he was one of my sons. This is his family, and the gardaí has accepted that I am the de facto mother, he is my child and they will now only engage with me.”

At one point during the conversation, she described begging Yves to come back home after she separated from his uncle.

People taking part in a protest outside Leinster House, Dublin, over the death of Congolese man Yves Sakila. Picture:  Cillian Sherlock/PA

“But he said no. He thought freedom outside was better and he was becoming older; it is a very difficult time for teenagers at those years.”

Mr Cullen added that it appears Yves “went off the rails thereafter”.

“He worked at casual jobs, fixing things. He built up a number of convictions, I understand, for petty crime, petty theft but nothing serious in terms of assault or anything such.

“So that’s the general picture. He was talented, articulate, but damaged and vulnerable.”

By the time he was in his 20s, Angel said he had already become accustomed to surviving independently on the streets, surrounded by people she feared were influencing him badly.

Still, he always came back. “He never forgot us,” she said. 

“We were the only family he knew. He wasn’t dangerous, he was vulnerable.”

That vulnerability is now central to the growing public debate surrounding his death.

Advocates working with migrants and homeless young people say Yves’ story reflects broader systemic failures involving care services, addiction support, housing instability, and social exclusion.

“He fell through every crack possible,” said Lassane.

At the centre of everything, Angel remains exhausted, grieving, and waiting.

More than a week after Yves’ death, the family still cannot arrange a funeral while toxicology tests and other inquiries continue.

“There’s no funeral organised, no answers, nothing,” Angel said.

Family members say they feel trapped in limbo as legal processes drag on and public scrutiny intensifies. At times, inside the house, there were moments of silence when nobody spoke at all.

Then Angel would suddenly begin remembering small things.

He was funny, he made us all laugh. He was a beautiful child, he is on my mind all the time, he knew we loved him.

“I wish this was just a bad dream,” she whispered.

“I want justice for my son, I want answers, and I want to bury the boy I raised, but now he is in the morgue.”

A garda spokesperson told the Irish Examiner “There are no further updates at this time.”

A spokesperson for Synergy Security Solutions said: “We are aware of the serious incident which occurred at Arnotts involving members of our security team responding to an incident at the store.

“Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family, friends, and all those affected at this difficult time.

“We are fully cooperating with An Garda Síochána and all relevant authorities as investigations into the circumstances surrounding the incident continue.

“The wellbeing of our employees involved is also being supported following this traumatic event.”