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.