A man accused of second-degree murder in a fatal 2022 stabbing outside Victoria’s Lucky Bar appeared in court Tuesday to represent himself at the start of a month-long trial.
Mohamed Daud Omar, 29, is on trial in B.C. Supreme Court for the second-degree murder of 30-year-old John Dickinson in the early morning of March 1, 2022.
Dickinson went to the bar on Feb. 28, 2022, to enjoy a night out. He was stabbed twice in an altercation with a man who was also at the bar, Crown prosecutor Mark Feldthusen said in his opening remarks.
The jury will hear from bar security staff who saw Dickinson escorting a man out of the bar while saying something to the effect of, “He’s gotta go. He can’t be here,” Feldthusen told the jury of eight women and four men.
Security staff separated the two men and told Dickinson to remain in the bar while directing the other man out, he said.
While outside, the other man appeared agitated and said something like, “I’m going to [expletive] this guy up,” he said.
The jury will hear that Dickinson then ran out of the bar towards the man and grabbed or swung at him, ending up on top of him, he said. Security staff separated the two men. Dickinson collapsed to the ground and the other man fled, he said.
That’s when witnesses realized Dickinson had been stabbed, Feldthusen said.
Within an hour, a person identifying himself as Mohamed Omar called 911 to report he had been in an altercation at a bar downtown and he had stabbed someone, Feldthusen told the jury.
The Crown expects to call 30 witnesses over three weeks, beginning with police officers who responded to the stabbing.
Const. Jennifer Gilroy, who was the first officer on the scene at 1:28 a.m. on March 1, 2022, testified Tuesday that she arrived outside the bar to find a man on his back with three people trying to help him while 30 to 40 people stood nearby.
She said she took over first aid on Dickinson and noticed stab wounds in his stomach and his chest. She applied pressure on his stomach wound, where his intestines were partially outside his body, she said.
Dickinson’s eyes couldn’t focus and his breathing was shallow and infrequent, she testified. “You could literally see him losing colour of his skin.”
When paramedics arrived, Gilroy was tasked with containing the scene with police tape. At that point, she noticed a knife with a hook on its end a couple of metres away from Dickinson, she said.
Lisa Forcier, a former Victoria police officer, testified she accompanied Dickinson in an ambulance to Victoria General Hospital. At 1:47 a.m., paramedics began CPR after declaring Dickinson no longer had a pulse, she said.
Omar, wearing a black suit with his ankles shackled, briefly cross examined both witnesses.
Justice Anthony Saunders told the jury the fact that Omar is representing himself has nothing to do with what they’ll decide and instructed them not to speculate on the reasons. “Take nothing from it. Nothing at all, one way or the other,” he said.
The jury will also hear from officers who arrested Omar at his residence in Vic West, as well as paramedics and an emergency room doctor who attempted to save Dickinson’s life. The Crown plans to call people who were at the bar, some of whom witnessed the events leading to an altercation between Dickinson and Omar, and all of whom witnessed the altercation itself, Feldthusen said.
The trial continues today.
