The jury trial of a man accused in the fatal stabbing of John Dickinson outside Victoria’s Lucky Bar two years ago began Tuesday (June 4) with graphic testimony by the first police officer on scene.
Const. Jennifer Gilroy had arrived at the Yates Street bar in the early hours of March 1, 2022 to find Dickinson bleeding, with stab wounds on his chest and stomach.
Audible crying could be heard from the side of the courtroom where Dickinson’s family sat as Gilroy described providing emergency medical care before paramedics got to the scene.
“I kept pressure on his stomach and what I believed to be his intestines that were outside of his body — tried to keep them clean and keep pressure on the wound,” Gilroy told the court.
Once paramedics did arrive, Gilroy turned to police work and began to cordon off the area. As she put up police tape, she said she observed a knife on the ground nearby that had a hook on the end of it.
Crown prosecutor Mark Feldthusen told the court a man who identified himself as Mohamed Omar had called 911 less than an hour after the fight saying he had been in an altercation with someone at a downtown club and had stabbed that person.
Dickinson, 30, died from his wounds and Mohamed Daud Omar is facing second-degree murder charges.
Omar is representing himself in the trial, so he is able to personally cross-examine the witnesses.
He stood about two metres away and off to Gilroy’s side as he questioned how she determined the number of stab wounds. The officer gave her answers staring straight ahead, without turning to look at Omar.
The trial is anticipated to take about four weeks as the Crown calls roughly 30 witnesses, including police, paramedics, eye-witnesses and two bar security personnel who were involved in trying to stop the altercation that led to the stabbing.
Feldthusen said in his opening statement to jurors that testimony from the two security personnel will be particularly important. They are expected to appear in court either at the end of the first week of the trial or the start of the second.
The security persons had seen Dickinson exiting the bar with another man and told Dickinson to wait inside, while directing the second man out of the bar, Feldthusen said, summarizing the expected testimony.
The prosecutor continued, telling jurors they can expect to hear that the man who was directed outside appeared agitated and uttered a threatening statement using an expletive. Then Dickinson ran out of the bar towards the man, taking a swing at him and ending up over top of the man.
Security staff intervened right away and pulled the two men apart. As one man fled the scene, Dickinson collapsed to the ground.
“Where it was determined that he’s been stabbed,” Feldthusen said.
Witness testimony is set to continue on Wednesday.
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