The safety of Halifax’s downtown core is under scrutiny once again after a violent assault left one man dead on the weekend.
This is the second time a fight has claimed a life in the city’s entertainment district in less than a year and some people are calling for change that would make the area safer.
Area resident Joey Foster says he enjoys going downtown but he thinks a greater police presence would prevent violence from escalating.
“I feel as if people noticed more security and cops, then this would be diminished and you wouldn’t have all this fighting,” says Foster.
Police responded to a disturbance call in the area of Argyle and Sackville Streets just before 4 a.m. Saturday. When they arrived on the scene they found a man lying on the ground.
Kaylin Todd Diggs, 26, of Halifax was taken to hospital where he died a short time later from his injuries. Police say the victim was not known to them.
Investigators say it appears Diggs was walking on Argyle Street early Saturday when a fight broke out. About five people were involved in the altercation, including Diggs, who was assaulted and knocked to the ground.
The fight started outside popular Halifax pub Durty Nelly’s. Bar owner Joe McGuinness says the bar was closed at the time, but security cameras captured the moments leading up to Diggs being taken away in an ambulance.
Yesterday, investigators released images taken from the surveillance video of three women they believed may have witnessed the assault and asked for the public's help in identifying them. Police say they have since identified the three women.
“We’re going over video surveillance, we’re also speaking to witnesses, we know there were a lot more,” says Const. Brian Palmeter. “If you haven’t provided a statement, contact us. Don’t wait for us to contact you.”
Diggs’ death is the second murder on Argyle Street in the past year. James Mattatall, 23, was killed in December after being attacked outside a nightclub, just a few feet away from where Diggs was killed.
Despite the violence, McGuinness says the entertainment district is generally a safe place, but incidents like the Diggs and Mattatall murders give it a bad name.
“I think not only does it tarnish the image of the entertainment district, it tarnishes the image of Halifax and Nova Scotia and its people,” says McGuinness. “You know, people need to understand when you go out, there’s no need for violence. Violence accomplishes nothing.”
McGuinness also says he believes there is plenty of police downtown on any given weekend, but one area that could be improved upon is the amount of traffic that flows through the area in the evenings.
“At the time of the incident there were a lot of cabs and a lot of people driving and police cruisers could have gotten here sooner than the two minutes had those other vehicles not been in the way,” he says.
While Diggs’ death is Halifax’s tenth homicide of 2012, new crime statistics show a drop in the number of murders in the first six months of this year, compared with 2011.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Alyse Hand
