ST. PETER, Minn. (KEYC) – The brother of Abdirashid Hussein, a 36-year -old who was killed by his roommate, David Otey at the St. Peter Forensic Mental Health Program’s (FMHP) North Campus on Dec. 31, 2023, has filed a lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Human Services for the negligence he says led to his brother’s death.
Prior to his commitment at the FMHP in 2013 and again in 2020, Hussein was a member of the Minnesota Nation Guard.
His brother, Abshir, says that he was a loving father to his four daughters.
Jeff Storms, a partner at Storms Dworak LLC who represents Abshir, says that the lawsuit is seeking an excess of $500,000 in damages to help their surviving family navigate the loss, and provide an incentive to state programs to avoid incidents like this in the future.
Storms says given Otey’s mental health history, and observed decline, some form of intervention should have happened long before the incident on New Year’s Eve.
Otey was sent to FMHP in 2018 after stabbing his sister to death.
Prior to that incident, he had a long history of delusional and violent psychosis.
The lawsuit says when Otey and Hussein were paired up as roommates in 2022, Otey’s condition had been improving,
In 2023, staff are cited as seeing a decline, after Otey’s surviving family filed for Harassment Restraining Orders against him.
The orders came after he was found eligible for a day pass that would allow him to leave the campus temporarily for trips into the community.
From November 2022 to December of 2023, the lawsuit claims Otey was identified showing risk factors like self-isolation, delusional thinking and irritability.
Abshir also heard from his brother during this time that he did not feel safe with his roommate, and that the facility had not changed Otey’s treatment plan in response to the decline.
One of the bigger cases of negligence the lawsuit draws attention to during this time is the facility’s decision to let Otey violate its own violent video game ban, by letting him play Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in the activity room.
The ban prohibits “criminogenic themed games”, which could be seen as promoting, supporting or encouraging criminal thinking, attitudes, or behaviors.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a game set in 9th century England, where players control a viking who fights enemies with an axe, sword and other weapons.
The game has an ESRB rating of ‘M’ for Mature for strong language, intense violence and blood and gore among other reasons.
The facility’s ban on violent games is part of the wider Policy of Media Possession by Patients at the campus which is meant to “limit patient access to certain media to support a therapeutic environment and maintain safety and security”.
Jeff Storms says that the fact that Otey was allowed to play a violent video game or have access to any violent media when he was in this state of decline is concerning.
“This is just one form of media that could have been triggering and was foreseeably triggering given his history of hallucinations,” Storms said.
Storms says this fact seems particularly relevant when Otey seemingly used a guitar like an axe to violently bludgeon Hussein in the head and attempted to strangle him with the strap, before the latter died from his injuries.
He says that is why his client is hoping that even if Otey wasn’t found guilty due to his mental illness, some form of change can happen by pursuing a civil case.
“We now have a gentleman there who has killed two people and both times was acquitted on mental health issues. I know Mr. Hussein is terrified that somebody might face the same fate as his brother did without accountability,” Storms said.
Minnesota Direct Care and Treatment (DCT), the state-operated behavioral health care system that runs FMHP said it could not comment on the pending litigation.
In a statement about Hussein’s death, Marshall Smith, the CEO, told KEYC:
“The loss of Abdi Hussein was a terrible tragedy that left his friends, family, and partners in treatment heartbroken. Our thoughts and sympathies are with his closest loved ones.”
DCT says due to data privacy concerns it also cannot share details about current or former patients.
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