A man who died after a Vancouver sidewalk altercation had been harassing a fellow tenant in low-barrier housing, a Vancouver Provincial Court judge heard March 11.
That fellow tenant is Jeffrey Scott Van Dyke, who has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in the June 2022 death of Scott Alan Carver.
His trial before Judge Jennifer Oulton began this week with Crown prosecutor Jenny Dyck reading some admissions of fact into the record.
The 62-year-old Vancouver resident elected for a trial by a provincial court judge sitting alone.
Vancouver Police Department officers were called to reports of an assault near East 1st Avenue and Main Street on June 2, 2022.
Carver, 56, was found on the scene and taken to hospital, where he died.
Oulton heard the cause of death was a blunt force head injury that caused a scalp laceration, a skull fracture and a buildup of blood on the brain. He underwent brain surgery and was stable for several days before dying, the court heard.
Dyck said Van Dyke and Carver were both sixth-floor residents of First Place Residence at 118 East 1st Ave.
She played video of the men outside the residence but skipped from their meeting to images of Carver prone on the ground.
First Place program manager Michael Lawson testified he was one of the first people at the scene after receiving a radio call from a support worker.
“He said there was a fight between Jeff and Scott,” Lawson told Oulton.
Lawson testified multiple staff members responded to Carver and a doctor and nurse were helping him.
He said Carver appeared to be bleeding from several spots on his head.
“Jeff started engaging with me saying he wasn’t involved,” Lawson said. “He was telling me this was not his fault; he was the victim here.”
In the video, Van Dyke can be seen moving around the perimeter on his electric scooter.
Lawson testified the relationship between Carver and Van Dyke was not good, and that he witnesses several arguments between the men.
“Scott would get very upset because he thought Jeff was a drug dealer,” Lawson said. “Jeff would get very upset about that.”
Lawson said he had written a letter to Carver regarding notes that had been left in the elevator and on Van Dyke’s door making sexual orientation slurs.
At one point, Carver had referred to Van Dyke’s scooter as a “super dooper sissy scooter.”
Van Dyke was arrested and later released on bail. He is not in custody.
Dyck said five civilian witnesses would be called in the trial.
The death was the city's seventh homicide of the year.
