Court slams DC over four years of hidden evidence in suicide case

At the heart of the case is an allegation that at least one guard, rather than intervening, encouraged the man to kill himself. A witness interviewed the same day described a guard called “A.K.” responding to the man’s pleas with, according to the transcript, “I do not give a fuck, kill yourself.” The man’s cellmate gave a consistent account the following day. 

Those interviews were part of an internal investigation completed in October 2022. But the final report made no mention of them. Instead, it concluded that officers were “unaware of his intent to commit self-harm” and had followed agency policy – findings the court noted were reached without any reference to the contrary witness evidence. 

The widow filed suit in June 2023, naming the guard as “Officer Akaie” based on a letter from a fellow detainee. The District said no one by that name existed and opposed her request for an employee roster. The guard was dismissed for lack of service. 

The internal report was not produced until November 2025. The interview recordings followed in June 2026. At a deposition that month, the lead investigator confirmed he understood “A.K.” to be the guard now proposed as a defendant – and could not explain why the witness statements were left out of his report. 

On October 20, 2026, the court granted the widow’s motion to amend her complaint to add the guard in his personal capacity. It rejected the District’s objections on futility, delay, and prejudice, describing its discovery conduct as an “apparent ‘hide-the-ball’ discovery tactic” that was “troubling, to say the least.”