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NEW YORK (AP) — In 2022, New York City’s jails commissioner, Louis Molina, issued a dire warning to local lawmakers: fentanyl was pouring into Rikers Island through the mail, he said, spurring an overdose crisis among the jail’s detainees and putting guards at risk.

As evidence of the insidious threat, Molina passed around a child’s drawing of a reindeer, one of hundreds of seized items he said had been “literally soaked in the drug and mailed to people in custody.”

But that claim was based on faulty drug-testing kits with a stunning 85% false positive rate, according to a report released Wednesday by the city’s Department of Investigation. The report found the city vastly overstated the prevalence of fentanyl sent by mail to detainees.

When investigators retested 71 pieces of mail initially flagged by field tests as containing fentanyl, only 10 actually showed traces of the drug. The drawing of a reindeer highlighted by Molina was fentanyl-free.

Field tests indicating an influx of fentanyl-laced mail to Rikers Island fueled a yearslong campaign by Mayor Eric Adams’ administration to bar people in city custody from receiving physical mail.

As a replacement, city officials proposed redirecting mail to an offsite vendor, who would then upload it digitally for the incarcerated person to read on a tablet — a practice used in other correctional systems, including New York’s state prisons. So far, the proposal has been blocked by a jail oversight board.

Jocelyn Strauber, the commissioner of the Department of Investigation, said the city should reassess its ongoing effort to bar detainees from receiving mail, given the report’s findings.

“The field tests don’t support a concern that a high rate of fentanyl-laced objects are coming in from the mail,” she told The Associated Press. “To the extent policy determinations are based on flawed data, they ought to be reconsidered.”

Detainee advocates have long contended that drugs primarily enter the jail system via employees, who can easily smuggle them inside and sell them to gang leaders. In recent years, dozens of correction officers have been charged in multiple investigations of smuggling rings on Rikers Island.

In its report, the Department of Investigation said corrections officials had failed to implement many of the department’s previous recommendations aimed at screening staff for contraband.

In an email statement, a Department of Correction spokesperson said the agency would review the report and continue refining its testing processes. “Field tests are a tool used to quickly assess potential threats, and while not perfect, they play an important role in our safety protocols,” the statement said.

Such field tests have gained popularity in recent years alongside a spike in opioid overdose deaths nationwide, allowing law enforcement officials to bypass the lengthy lab process to determine if a substance contains narcotics.

But experts have long raised questions about the strips’ effectiveness. Under federal regulations, manufacturers are required to include language on their packaging indicating that results are preliminary until confirmed by a lab — something that rarely happens in correctional settings.

Last November, New York’s state prison system was found to have wrongly punished more than 2,000 detainees due to false positives from drug tests manufactured by Sirchie Finger Print Laboratories.

For years, the test strips used on Rikers Island, the city-run jail system, were also provided by Sirchie. But after complaints about the reliability of the tests, the Department of Correction switched to kits made by DetectaChem last April.

The review by the Department of Investigation found DetectaChem’s test strips had a false positive rate of 79%, while Sirchie’s were wrong 91% of the time.

Inquiries to Sirchie were not returned.

Travis Kisner, the chief operating officer of DetectaChem, said the company was still reviewing the report, but added: “We stand behind our product.”

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

A former police officer involved in the violent arrest of an Ottawa man who later died in hospital told a coroner’s inquest that he was traumatized by the incident and worried about his own safety at the time. 

The inquest into the July 2016 death of 38-year-old Abdirahman Abdi began earlier this week, with witnesses testifying Wednesday.

Abdi died after police responded to a 911 call reporting that a man was groping women outside a coffee shop in Ottawa’s Hintonburg neighbourhood. The inquest has heard that Abdi appeared to be in a mental health crisis at the time. 

Former Const. David Weir, who was the first responding officer, testified Wednesday that Abdi’s death was a “critical stress incident.”

“It still affects me to this day. It’s the reason why I’m not working,” he said.

Weir, who was a member of the Ottawa Police Service from 2002 until earlier this year, said police were short staffed that day and he volunteered to take the call about Abdi.

Weir said the report he received through police dispatch did not match the scene he arrived at that day.

“This guy’s behaviour is so erratic,” he said, adding that his thinking at the time was: “I’m going to end this because it’s out of control. It’s just me and this large man.”

Weir described chasing Abdi and repeatedly striking him with a baton in an attempt to get him to stop running.

“It was like I hit him with a fly swatter,” Weir said.

The inquest was shown security camera footage of Abdi’s arrest, with presiding coroner Dr. David Eden thanking the jury for watching what he called a “harrowing” video showing Weir and Const. Daniel Montsion hit and tackle Abdi to the ground. Montsion was charged in the case with manslaughter, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon and was found not guilty in 2020.

“This call has been traumatic for me and still is to this day,” an emotional Weir said. “There are things about it I don’t remember, it’s not because I don’t want to.”

Due to a lack of supervisors on duty, Weir said he was forced to stay at the crime scene instead of being driven to a police station to write his report as was standard procedure.

“We have people trying to crash into the crime scene from behind us … there are people on the street who are yelling,” he said, adding that he heard someone accuse him of crushing Abdi’s head.

Weir said he was worried for his safety in the minutes following the arrest.

“Honest to God, I thought I was going to get a brick to the head,” he said. 

The jurors heard Monday that Abdi was born in Somalia and went to a refugee camp in Kenya with his family before moving to Canada in 2009. 

Through an agreed statement of facts, the inquest heard that Abdi appeared to be in a mental health crisis when he interacted with patrons at a coffee shop on the day of his arrest, with multiple women saying he grabbed their breasts without consent.

The inquest, set to last four weeks, is mandated by law because Abdi was injured while in police custody. The jury is not tasked with determining legal responsibility but it can make recommendations to avoid similar deaths in the future.

A lawsuit Abdi’s family filed against the Ottawa Police Service was settled out of court in 2021.

The details of the settlement are confidential, with both sides agreeing in a statement at the time that “significant improvements” need to be made to how police respond to people experiencing mental health issues.

Abdi’s family said in a statement earlier this week that his death could have been prevented and that they hope the inquest will spur changes. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

CALGARY – Officials at the Calgary zoo say a young gorilla was killed after a worker accidentally closed a wrong door and the animal was struck in the head. 

Eyare, a two-year-old female western lowland gorilla, was injured Nov. 13 at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo while being moved to a different area in the facility. 

Colleen Baird, the zoo’s director of animal care, health and welfare, says an investigation determined a staffer intended to activate a door to separate the gorilla from other members of the troop.

“A member of her care team … mistakenly activated the wrong door, resulting in Eyare being struck by the door and sustaining traumatic head injuries,” Baird told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.

Despite life-saving efforts from zoo and veterinary staff, the gorilla died.

The troop of critically endangered gorillas also included a silverback male, a young male and four adult females. They can weigh between 68 and 181 kilograms. 

Eyare was born at the zoo in April 2022, the first offspring for dam Dossi and sire Jasiri.

She was injured in the back-of-house area, where staff train gorillas, feed them, and provide ultrasounds and veterinary services.

Baird declined to give any details that could identify the worker responsible for the death.

“The animal care member directly involved is devastated and mourning this loss alongside all of us. They were immediately removed from the workplace following the incident and we are providing support to them during this difficult time,” Baird said.

She said the staff member would be reassigned to another area of the zoo and undergo further training before working with animals again.

In addition to existing training, processes and policy requirements, she said the gorilla care team would also get specialized training for operating hydraulic doors.

“We are reassessing control levers, locations and designs … we’ll implement changes to improve staff ability to confirm, both visually and by touch, what animal doors they are moving,” she said.

Baird added there would also be new animal behaviour training to encourage gorillas to maintain a safe distance from doors during movement times.

She said the gorillas are very social and have been grieving the death.

“The first few days after the incident the gorillas were very quiet. We gave them lots of choices to move around as they saw fit. At times, the mother, Dossi, would spend time by herself,” Baird said.

“Since the days have progressed, we’ve seen the gorillas spend more time with Dossi, sleep with Dossi. They are supporting each other.”

In 2009, a giant capybara, a central American rodent, was crushed to death in a holding area at the zoo when a worker closed a hydraulic door.

There have also been other deaths at the zoo this year. 

A seven-year-old polar bear named Baffin drowned in July in the plunge pool in his enclosure. A necropsy found his trachea was crushed by another bear while the two were engaged in rough play.

In April, the zoo announced the death of one of its mandrills — a large and colourful monkey. It said 20-year-old Yusufu died after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery. 

Animal Justice, an advocacy group for the humane treatment of animals, said it’s time for a broader look at safety at the zoo.

“The Alberta government should investigate whether the zoo is complying with its license conditions, which require all equipment be installed in a way that does not present a hazard to animals,” Animal Justice executive director Camille Labchuk said in a statement.

“The use of hydraulic doors without safety mechanisms is clearly dangerous and appears to run contrary to license conditions.”

Labchuk added, “The Calgary zoo appears to have a higher rate of animal deaths compared (with) other zoos, and in light of Eyare’s death there should be a systematic review of the zoo’s operations and practices.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.