A disagreement about a parking space that escalated to a physical altercation involving a knife has culminated with a 70-year-old John Allan Heygi of Madeira Park found guilty of assault with a weapon.
Judge Steven Merrick made that ruling March 12 at provincial court in Sechelt. Sentencing is pending. The judge called for that process to be scheduled for March 19, but the matter was not included on that court's docket for that date.
Merrick spoke to the particulars of the incident, which occurred on the morning of April 17, 2024, in the outside area of a coffee shop in Madeira Park. Testimony provided at earlier court sessions indicated Heygi was seated in that area and was approached by an individual with whom he was having an ongoing dispute over use of a parking spot.
In what Merrick characterized as a “heated exchange between the two," the second individual placed his hands on Heygi twice without consent in a brief skirmish. He also pushed Heygi back, while both parties were yelling at each other. As the incident escalated, an employee of the coffee shop told both men to leave the establishment. The second individual and his partner, who had accompanied him to the scene, complied and began crossing the street from the café heading towards their place of employment. Heygi also began crossing the street in the same direction.
Testimony had been received from Heygi, the second individual and his partner, a witness who was at the coffee shop patio and a coffee shop employee. All with the exception of the coffee shop staffer, testified that Heygi produced a knife at some point in the interaction and that the weapon was pointed in the direction of the second individual and his partner.
Although conflicting testimony was recorded regarding a threat being uttered by Heygi and about the sequence of the altercation, Merrick ruled there was no reasonable doubt that Heygi was in possession of a knife and that it was part of an assault that he committed on the second individual.
