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A 37-year-old man who lay motionless on the pavement in front of a Hintonburg apartment building after an altercation with police Sunday morning was dead 45 minutes before he arrived at The Ottawa Hospital trauma centre, a family spokesman says.

Abdirahman Abdi died Monday after a confrontation with several Ottawa police officers after a brief foot chase led to his being handcuffed, bloodied and face down on the pavement.

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Police had been called over allegations of a disturbance at a nearby coffee shop. The subsequent footchase ended at his apartment building at 55 Hilda St., where, witnesses say, police took him down and used pepper spray and batons in a violent arrest that halted and horrified the neighbourhood.

Dozens of people watched from the apartments above as Abdi lay in a pool of blood.

The civilian police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, is now investigating his arrest.