Halifax Regional Police continues to investigate an assault which took place this morning in Dartmouth.
Police received multiple 911 calls at 8:09 a.m. in relation to the incident which began in an apartment in the 100 block of Pinecrest Drive. An argument between two men resulted in the victim being stabbed by the suspect. A third man, who was also in the apartment at the time, grabbed a bat and hit the suspect. The suspect fled the apartment and was followed by the man with the bat.
Both men were located a short distance away and arrested by police, and EHS was called to the apartment to tend to the stabbing victim. The two men involved in the initial altercation remain in hospital while the third man remains in police custody.
The HRP/RCMP Integrated General Investigation Section is investigating the incident and charges are expected.
Assault Investigated
March 12, 2010
Police Investigating Assault
Halifax Regional Police is currently investigating an assault which took place this morning in Dartmouth.
Officers were called to the Highfield Park bus terminal in relation to an injured man being followed by another man with a bat. Both men were located a short distance away with one man suffering from head injuries and the second man suffering from at least one stab wound. One man was arrested and both were transported to hospital.
The investigation is in its early stages, however, Halifax Regional Police would like to reassure the public that this was not a random incident. The men are known to one another and police believe the altercation is part of an on-going dispute.
Scene of the Crime (130 Pinecrest Drive):
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Friday, March 12, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Mon ami- Vice (Unit)
Investigators in the HRM Integrated Vice Unit arrested two johns in an undercover operation conducted last night.
The two men were arrested in the Windmill Road area of Dartmouth for allegedly propositioning an undercover police officer. A 52-year-old Halifax man and a 46-year-old Dartmouth man are scheduled to appear in Dartmouth Provincial Court at a later date charged with communicating for the purpose of prostitution.
Approximate scene of the Crime:
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The two men were arrested in the Windmill Road area of Dartmouth for allegedly propositioning an undercover police officer. A 52-year-old Halifax man and a 46-year-old Dartmouth man are scheduled to appear in Dartmouth Provincial Court at a later date charged with communicating for the purpose of prostitution.
Approximate scene of the Crime:
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Courtroom Brouhaha Leads to Calls for More Security
As reported by the Herald's Davene Jeffrey:
Crown attorneys are calling for increased courthouse security after a large brawl broke out at the Dartmouth provincial courthouse Wednesday morning.
“Basically it was a mini riot. People were fighting all over the place, yelling, screaming and fighting,” said Crown attorney Roland Levesque.
The ruckus erupted around 11:15 a.m., moments after the sentencing of Tyrell Ramone Beals as his supporters and the supporters of his victim began fighting.
The 22-year-old pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to pointing a gun at Lloyd Beals, Jr., possessing a weapon while prohibited from carrying weapons and violating a recognizance.
Those charges stemmed from a disturbance that broke out between a group of people in North Preston on Feb. 26.
A couple of people had been fighting when others, including Mr. Beals, stepped in either to take sides or break the two up, Levesque said.
“It’s at that time (Beals) pulled out a gun,” Levesque said.
Beals is currently serving a three-year, eight-month sentence on an unrelated matter. On Wednesday, Judge Brian Gibson agreed to a joint sentence request and gave Mr. Beals a four-month consecutive sentence for pulling the gun on Lloyd Beals, Jr.
About 30 people were present for the sentencing and they left the courtroom quietly, Levesque said.
“Within seconds you could just hear pandemonium outside.”
The Crown and RCMP Const. Michael Elms ran out of the courtroom and into the lobby.
“I saw an individual that was being punched several times ... by several other persons,” Levesque said.
Elms got that group separated and eight sheriff’s deputies tried to get the rest under control.
“They managed more or less to separate the combatants,” the Crown said.
After that there was a lot of yelling between the two groups until one of the sides left.
It was about then that Halifax Regional Police arrived.
Two ambulances were called to the courthouse, and paramedics did check one woman, but no one needed to be treated, said Emergency Health Services spokesman Paul Maynard.
Apparently, some of those involved drove to North Preston, where a large group of people were reported to have gathered at the bottom of Downey Road.
That group dispersed, but at about 1 p.m. folks gathered again and this time a couple of women began fighting and pushing each other, RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin said.
No one was hurt and police, who had remained on scene, broke it up.
A large number of Mounties were reported to have been called to the community while another group of officers waited at a nearby fire station in case they were needed.
Trouble between the two groups should have been anticipated, Levesque said.
“There is some longstanding grudge or dispute between these two ... groups which has never been resolved,” he said.
People entering the courthouse Wednesday morning weren't screened and it's only good luck that no one was armed during the melee, Levesque said.
Justice Department spokeswoman Sherri Aikenhead said the deputies do risk assessments everyday depending on who is scheduled to appear in each courthouse.
At the time of the incident, the courthouse was locked down with no members of the public allowed to enter the lobby and no inmates were brought into the courtrooms, Aikenhead said.
This was the second obvious lapse of security at the Dartmouth courthouse recently, Crown attorneys say.
One day last week, two high profile cases – Demarco Smith, an accused murderer, and Jimmy Melvin, Jr., a notorious gangster who has been wounded in two separate shootings in the past 15 months – were both in court but there was no screening of the public entering the courthouse that day, said Rick Woodburn, president of the Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys’ Association.
Halifax provincial court on Spring Garden Road has a permanent walk-through metal detector in place and anyone entering the courthouse must be scanned and have their possessions searched before they can enter.
“It was sheer luck that no weapons were produced today,” Woodburn said.
Courthouses are often the scenes of high tension, he said.
However, members of the public, the accused, victims, lawyers and judges should all be protected from possible violence, Woodburn said.
A court security committee has recommended improvements for all the courthouses in Nova Scotia, but so far many of those recommendations have not been implemented, Woodburn said.
“The Department of Justice continues to study and review the security measures,” Woodburn said.
“Our view is that it boils down to cost.”
Aikenhead maintained that several security measures have been brought in over the past year.
The brawl at the Dartmouth courthouse will be reviewed beginning Thursday which is normal procedure when an incident occurs, Aikenhead said.
Crown attorneys are calling for increased courthouse security after a large brawl broke out at the Dartmouth provincial courthouse Wednesday morning.
“Basically it was a mini riot. People were fighting all over the place, yelling, screaming and fighting,” said Crown attorney Roland Levesque.
The ruckus erupted around 11:15 a.m., moments after the sentencing of Tyrell Ramone Beals as his supporters and the supporters of his victim began fighting.
The 22-year-old pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to pointing a gun at Lloyd Beals, Jr., possessing a weapon while prohibited from carrying weapons and violating a recognizance.
Those charges stemmed from a disturbance that broke out between a group of people in North Preston on Feb. 26.
A couple of people had been fighting when others, including Mr. Beals, stepped in either to take sides or break the two up, Levesque said.
“It’s at that time (Beals) pulled out a gun,” Levesque said.
Beals is currently serving a three-year, eight-month sentence on an unrelated matter. On Wednesday, Judge Brian Gibson agreed to a joint sentence request and gave Mr. Beals a four-month consecutive sentence for pulling the gun on Lloyd Beals, Jr.
About 30 people were present for the sentencing and they left the courtroom quietly, Levesque said.
“Within seconds you could just hear pandemonium outside.”
The Crown and RCMP Const. Michael Elms ran out of the courtroom and into the lobby.
“I saw an individual that was being punched several times ... by several other persons,” Levesque said.
Elms got that group separated and eight sheriff’s deputies tried to get the rest under control.
“They managed more or less to separate the combatants,” the Crown said.
After that there was a lot of yelling between the two groups until one of the sides left.
It was about then that Halifax Regional Police arrived.
Two ambulances were called to the courthouse, and paramedics did check one woman, but no one needed to be treated, said Emergency Health Services spokesman Paul Maynard.
Apparently, some of those involved drove to North Preston, where a large group of people were reported to have gathered at the bottom of Downey Road.
That group dispersed, but at about 1 p.m. folks gathered again and this time a couple of women began fighting and pushing each other, RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin said.
No one was hurt and police, who had remained on scene, broke it up.
A large number of Mounties were reported to have been called to the community while another group of officers waited at a nearby fire station in case they were needed.
Trouble between the two groups should have been anticipated, Levesque said.
“There is some longstanding grudge or dispute between these two ... groups which has never been resolved,” he said.
People entering the courthouse Wednesday morning weren't screened and it's only good luck that no one was armed during the melee, Levesque said.
Justice Department spokeswoman Sherri Aikenhead said the deputies do risk assessments everyday depending on who is scheduled to appear in each courthouse.
At the time of the incident, the courthouse was locked down with no members of the public allowed to enter the lobby and no inmates were brought into the courtrooms, Aikenhead said.
This was the second obvious lapse of security at the Dartmouth courthouse recently, Crown attorneys say.
One day last week, two high profile cases – Demarco Smith, an accused murderer, and Jimmy Melvin, Jr., a notorious gangster who has been wounded in two separate shootings in the past 15 months – were both in court but there was no screening of the public entering the courthouse that day, said Rick Woodburn, president of the Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys’ Association.
Halifax provincial court on Spring Garden Road has a permanent walk-through metal detector in place and anyone entering the courthouse must be scanned and have their possessions searched before they can enter.
“It was sheer luck that no weapons were produced today,” Woodburn said.
Courthouses are often the scenes of high tension, he said.
However, members of the public, the accused, victims, lawyers and judges should all be protected from possible violence, Woodburn said.
A court security committee has recommended improvements for all the courthouses in Nova Scotia, but so far many of those recommendations have not been implemented, Woodburn said.
“The Department of Justice continues to study and review the security measures,” Woodburn said.
“Our view is that it boils down to cost.”
Aikenhead maintained that several security measures have been brought in over the past year.
The brawl at the Dartmouth courthouse will be reviewed beginning Thursday which is normal procedure when an incident occurs, Aikenhead said.
Disorder in the Court
Halifax Police Media Release:
At about 11:30 am members of the Halifax Regional Police and RCMP responded to a disturbance at the Dartmouth Provincial Court House 277 Pleasant Street. Two groups that were at the court house for the sentencing of a male from an incident in Preston clashed outside the courtroom. Several persons began fighting, the number of people involved grew and several units were dispatched to assist. The group was eventually dispersed and the investigation is being continued by members of the General Investigation Section.
Coverage by the CBC:
The Dartmouth courthouse was locked down Wednesday following a disturbance after a sentencing hearing.
Crown attorney Roland Levesque said he was in Courtroom No. 3 speaking with a police officer after the hearing when he heard a "tremendous noise" from outside the courtroom.
"It was like all hell was breaking loose," Levesque said.
The police officer ran out of the courtroom and Levesque followed. He said he saw up to 30 people in the lobby involved in a "huge melee."
"Screaming, yelling, punches were being thrown, people were assaulting each other," he said. "It was sort of like a mini riot."
Levesque said the police constable went into the middle of the fray and separated some of the people involved. Several sheriffs deputies also arrived at the scene.
"They were able to finally separate the principle combatants and get them apart, and more sheriffs responded after that so there was quite a few security personnel here," said Levesque. "They were able to separate the two groups and after that there was just a lot of yelling and hollering."
The hearing was for a North Preston man facing several weapons-related charges, including possession of a firearm for a purpose dangerous to the public peace.
The accused in that case, Tyrell Ramone Beals, had entered a guilty plea on Wednesday and was sentenced to four months in jail. Levesque said that because Beals was originally supposed to stand trial, there were many people in the courtroom who had been subpoenaed as witnesses.
"There were quite a bit of persons who were … also present, I believe, to support the parties that were involved," he said.
Levesque said he saw no weapons during the fight and no one was arrested at the scene. Both parties had filtered out of the lobby by the time Halifax Regional Police officers arrived.
"We're very fortunate nobody had weapons or pulled a weapon, because if somebody had pulled a weapon, I think we could've had some really, really serious consequences here," he said.
RCMP officers were sent to North Preston, N.S., to ensure violence did not break out after the courthouse brawl. (CBC)Halifax police said one person suffered minor injuries during the fight.
At least two dozen RCMP cruisers also descended on the community of North Preston. RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin said a crowd had gathered on Downey Road but they had dispersed without any trouble breaking out.
Taplin said the situation was connected to the earlier brawl at the courthouse.
Rick Woodburn, president of the Nova Scotia Crown Attorney's Association, said the Dartmouth provincial court incident bolsters the prosecution service's call for better courthouse security across the province. He wants weapons-security systems installed in every courthouse in Nova Scotia.
"You're dealing with an area where some of the worst people in our community are being sentenced and put to jail," he said. "Their families are present and it's high tension. We can see it doesn't necessarily have to involve the court staff or the sheriffs. It can be two warring factions and that can be the most dangerous."
At the Dartmouth courthouse, the sheriffs conduct a risk assessment and decide whether to set up a metal detector that day.
There was no weapons scanner in place on Wednesday.
"The sheriffs do a fantastic job with what they have but they don't have enough," said Woodburn. "They don't have the tools necessary to prevent these kinds of things from happening."
Although there were no weapons involved in Wednesday's melee, Woodburn said having permanent weapons-security systems would "change the atmosphere of the entire building" and deter violence.
Scene of the Crime:
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At about 11:30 am members of the Halifax Regional Police and RCMP responded to a disturbance at the Dartmouth Provincial Court House 277 Pleasant Street. Two groups that were at the court house for the sentencing of a male from an incident in Preston clashed outside the courtroom. Several persons began fighting, the number of people involved grew and several units were dispatched to assist. The group was eventually dispersed and the investigation is being continued by members of the General Investigation Section.
Coverage by the CBC:
The Dartmouth courthouse was locked down Wednesday following a disturbance after a sentencing hearing.
Crown attorney Roland Levesque said he was in Courtroom No. 3 speaking with a police officer after the hearing when he heard a "tremendous noise" from outside the courtroom.
"It was like all hell was breaking loose," Levesque said.
The police officer ran out of the courtroom and Levesque followed. He said he saw up to 30 people in the lobby involved in a "huge melee."
"Screaming, yelling, punches were being thrown, people were assaulting each other," he said. "It was sort of like a mini riot."
Levesque said the police constable went into the middle of the fray and separated some of the people involved. Several sheriffs deputies also arrived at the scene.
"They were able to finally separate the principle combatants and get them apart, and more sheriffs responded after that so there was quite a few security personnel here," said Levesque. "They were able to separate the two groups and after that there was just a lot of yelling and hollering."
The hearing was for a North Preston man facing several weapons-related charges, including possession of a firearm for a purpose dangerous to the public peace.
The accused in that case, Tyrell Ramone Beals, had entered a guilty plea on Wednesday and was sentenced to four months in jail. Levesque said that because Beals was originally supposed to stand trial, there were many people in the courtroom who had been subpoenaed as witnesses.
"There were quite a bit of persons who were … also present, I believe, to support the parties that were involved," he said.
Levesque said he saw no weapons during the fight and no one was arrested at the scene. Both parties had filtered out of the lobby by the time Halifax Regional Police officers arrived.
"We're very fortunate nobody had weapons or pulled a weapon, because if somebody had pulled a weapon, I think we could've had some really, really serious consequences here," he said.
RCMP officers were sent to North Preston, N.S., to ensure violence did not break out after the courthouse brawl. (CBC)Halifax police said one person suffered minor injuries during the fight.
At least two dozen RCMP cruisers also descended on the community of North Preston. RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin said a crowd had gathered on Downey Road but they had dispersed without any trouble breaking out.
Taplin said the situation was connected to the earlier brawl at the courthouse.
Rick Woodburn, president of the Nova Scotia Crown Attorney's Association, said the Dartmouth provincial court incident bolsters the prosecution service's call for better courthouse security across the province. He wants weapons-security systems installed in every courthouse in Nova Scotia.
"You're dealing with an area where some of the worst people in our community are being sentenced and put to jail," he said. "Their families are present and it's high tension. We can see it doesn't necessarily have to involve the court staff or the sheriffs. It can be two warring factions and that can be the most dangerous."
At the Dartmouth courthouse, the sheriffs conduct a risk assessment and decide whether to set up a metal detector that day.
There was no weapons scanner in place on Wednesday.
"The sheriffs do a fantastic job with what they have but they don't have enough," said Woodburn. "They don't have the tools necessary to prevent these kinds of things from happening."
Although there were no weapons involved in Wednesday's melee, Woodburn said having permanent weapons-security systems would "change the atmosphere of the entire building" and deter violence.
Scene of the Crime:
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