‘A very dirty hit’: Friends demand justice after father-to-be killed on Halifax waterfront | 24CA News
It’s been almost three weeks since Davelle Desmond, a 26-year-old Dartmouth man and soon-to-be father, died after an altercation on the Halifax waterfront. His two mates who witnessed the incident aren’t dropping religion that these accountable will quickly be dropped at justice.
Adrienne Trenholm mentioned she travelled to Halifax along with her boyfriend Steven, Desmond, and his girlfriend Shayla to soak up the Natal Day fireworks when an argument broke out with a bunch of youngsters, unknown to them, whereas they have been ready in line for meals.
“These guys started picking at Davelle and Steven, my boyfriend, and it just escalated,” she mentioned, including that Desmond tried to stroll away earlier than he was sucker punched.
“It was a very dirty hit. I was in the process of helping Steven, he was getting jumped by three other people … and when I turned around, I seen Davelle fall … he hit his head on the picnic table. I was just in shock.”
Trenholm, an in depth good friend of Desmond’s for greater than a decade, mentioned the sound of his collision with the desk was “so loud that it was convincing to others that it was a gunshot.”
“There was no gunshot, no weapons that I know of,” she mentioned, including that the people accountable had fled the scene after Desmond collapsed.
She mentioned he was with no pulse for about half-hour earlier than he was declared to be braindead, ultimately dying within the hospital.
Trenholm’s boyfriend, Steven Roy, mentioned a bunch of youngsters began “slandering” him and Desmond for “no apparent reason.”
Trenholm, Roy, and Desmond.
Adrienne Trenholm
“We’ve never met these people a day in our life, we were just trying to have a good night,” he mentioned. “Before things could even get resolved or fixed, things got escalated very quickly and it ended up with the loss of our friend.”
After the deadly hit to Desmond, Roy mentioned he grabbed the one accountable for touchdown the punch and started “slamming him around” earlier than three different folks from the group jumped on his again.
He mentioned Trenholm was capable of take away one individual off of him, whereas two others have been tackled by a bunch of bystanders and one other two fled the scene.
Halifax Regional Police (HRP) responded to the incident on the waterfront boardwalk close to the 1500-block of Lower Water Street round 9:40 p.m. on Aug. 6.
In a assertion, police ultimately dominated the demise as a murder.
“The investigation remains ongoing, and we continue to ask the public to contact police if they have any information in relation to the incident,” wrote a spokesperson from HRP on Friday when Global News reached out requesting an replace.
But each Trenholm and Roy consider progress is being made within the investigation, as they think “something will happen here soon.”
“At the scene, I had the general manager of the Salt Yard Social bar come out and she specifically told me she has camera footage pointing right where it happened,” Trenholm mentioned, including that she then knowledgeable officers in regards to the surveillance footage.
“I personally think they are going to get him justice,” she mentioned. “He was way, way, too young, he didn’t even get to live half his life.”
She mentioned that police have advised her to not “worry too much” in regards to the investigation as progress is being made.
As for the magnitude of their relationship with Desmond, each described him as a childhood good friend – somebody who’d “light up a room” together with his character.
“He was through and through my big brother. I never had any siblings at all so to me he was like the closest thing I had to a big brother. So, losing him was very difficult,” Trenholm mentioned.
Desmond’s household supplied each Trenholm and Roy with a necklace containing their late good friend’s ashes.
Megan King
In honour of his reminiscence, the couple acquired a sentimental merchandise that may maintain their late good friend close by indefinitely.
“This actually gave me a lot of closure. It kind of makes me feel like I have a little piece of him with me everywhere I go now, she said while holding a necklace that reads “Forever Loved” on a pendant that contained a few of Desmond’s ashes.
She mentioned that each she and Roy have been honoured to obtain the necklaces from Desmond’s household.
Adrienne Trenholm, who’s been shut mates with Desmond for greater than a decade, holds up her necklace.
Despite these near Desmond sustaining confidence that justice will probably be served, it doesn’t take away from the struggles of dropping an in depth good friend.
“It’s been taking a very big toll on me a lot,” Roy mentioned.
“I haven’t actually been able to cope with it yet. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it to this day.”
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