16-05-2025
Man who killed stranger after Victoria bar fight gets life sentence, 13 years without parole
The courthouse in Victoria is shown in this file photo (CTV News)
A man who killed a stranger after fighting with him in a Victoria nightclub in 2022 has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 13 years.
Mohamed Daud Omar was sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court late last month, and Justice Anthony Saunders' reasons for his decision were published online Friday.
A jury convicted Omar of second-degree murder last year. The conviction comes with an automatic life sentence, it was up to Saunders to determine when parole eligibility would begin.
Crown prosecutors asked the judge to impose an ineligibility period of 12 to 13 years, while Omar's defence asked for the minimum of 10 years.
The crime
Omar was 27 years old on March 1, 2022, when he got into an altercation with 29-year-old John Dickinson at Lucky Bar nightclub on Yates Street.
According to Saunders' decision, the fight began verbally, though Dickinson 'put his hands on Mr. Omar and began to lead him towards the exit, saying words to the effect of, 'You can get this guy out.''
One of the bar's security guards escorted Omar out of the venue, and another told the court he heard Omar muttering 'I'm going to f*** this guy up' under his breath while he was outside.
'When Mr. Dickinson and his girlfriend exited shortly after that, Mr. Dickinson saw Mr. Omar, yelled at him, and rushed at him,' the decision reads.
'The two of them tussled and then tripped or fell with Mr. Dickinson on top. The two security guards had been attempting to intervene. At some point, while they were down, Mr. Omar stabbed Mr. Dickinson twice in the torso.'
Dickinson suffered 'massive blood loss,' collapsed and never regained consciousness, according to the decision.
Omar fled on foot to an Airbnb he was renting in the Vic West neighbourhood, where he called 911 and reported that he had stabbed a man and claimed he was acting in self-defence.
He left his knife – described in the decision as 'a replica combat knife with a fixed blade, 12-and-a-half centimetres long' – at the scene. Police recovered the weapon and arrested him, and he has been in custody ever since.
Killer was out on bail
Six days before he killed Dickinson, Omar was arrested for what Saunders' decision describes as 'charges of serious, violent crime,' which are still before the court.
He was released from custody with a variety of conditions, including a curfew requiring him to be at home between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., as well as a ban on possessing any weapons, including knives.
'Those bail terms were in effect six days later when Mr. Omar committed the murder of Mr. Dickinson,' the decision reads.
Omar did not testify in his defence during the trial, and Saunders' decision notes multiple times that the killer's state of mind and motivation when committing the crime remain unknown.
A Black Muslim man born in Toronto to Somali immigrants, Omar suffered bullying and racism in school when he was growing up, according to the decision. He began drinking and using cannabis to cope with anxiety while he was still in high school, and he dropped out in Grade 11.
'Given the lack of evidence as to Mr. Omar's motivation and state of mind, and in particular the complete absence of any explanation for why Mr. Omar had chosen to arm himself with a deadly weapon, it is difficult to relate the offence to the racism and discrimination Mr. Omar has experienced throughout his life,' the decision reads.
'I will add that even if such a connection could properly be found, I consider the gravity of the offence and the danger to society posed by Mr. Omar … to be such that the impact of those factors on assessing Mr. Omar's moral blameworthiness would be slight at best.'
A pre-sentencing report submitted in the case found Omar to be at 'an elevated risk of violence' compared to other offenders, according to the decision. It noted that he has gotten into fights with other inmates while in custody during his trial.
The judge added he was not optimistic about Omar's prospects for rehabilitation.
In addition to sentencing Omar to 13 years of parole ineligibility, Saunders imposed mandatory orders prohibiting him from possessing weapons and requiring him to provide DNA samples, as well as an order prohibiting from communicating directly or indirectly with any member of Dickinson's family.
