A “gentle giant” who died after being restrained face-down for seven minutes following an altercation with a jewellery shop security guard was not killed unlawfully, a coroner has found.
Sam Diatta, 39, went into cardiac arrest while being held on the floor of Mappin and Webb jewellers on Coney Street in York on July 26 2022.
An inquest heard Mr Diatta, who had bipolar disorder, was suffering an acute mental health episode when he went into the shop and told security guard Gary Prothero that he had 18,000 TikTok followers and wanted to take pictures of the watches, demanding three free watches in return.
When Mr Prothero asked him to leave, he threw several punches at him, before another customer came over to help.
CCTV footage showed Mr Diatta being tackled to the floor and two more members of the public coming to help, meaning he was being held down by four men when police arrived.
Two pathologists said that the medical cause of death was hypertensive heart disease combined with the effects of being restrained, with one telling the inquest that the position Mr Diatta was being held in would have reduced his breathing.
After Mr Diatta’s death, police arrested four men – but later said no one would face any charges.
Today (Thursday), coroner Jon Heath said Mr Diatta’s family had asked him to consider that the “disproportionate use of restraint was an unlawful act” as it was “dangerous and likely to cause injury”.
But Mr Heath said none of the four men knew of Mr Diatta’s mental health issues or heart condition, and did not believe he was struggling to breathe.
The coroner said Mr Prothero had been hit in the face and was acting in self-defence when he initially restrained Mr Diatta.
He said the other men involved thought there had been a robbery, and all of them were restraining Mr Diatta because the police had been called.
Mr Heath concluded that Mr Diatta’s death did not amount to manslaughter, and was not an unlawful killing.
He recorded a narrative conclusion that Mr Diatta died as a consequence of naturally occurring heart disease combined with the effects of being restrained.
The inquest heard that Mr Diatta had been discharged from a psychiatric hospital four days before his death, and his family said they believed he was not well enough to be living in the community at the time.
