‘They attacked me’: Halifax bar owner recalls what former bouncer told him about fatal encounter

The former owners of the Halifax Alehouse testified at a manslaughter trial on Thursday.

The former co-owners of the now-closed and sold Halifax Alehouse testified at the manslaughter trial of their former head of security, who is accused of choking a patron to death. The testimony included details of what Alexander Levy told one of the owners before he was arrested.

Michel Khoury said he was at their neighbouring business, HFX Sports Bar & Grill, closing down for the night when the bar’s general manager called him.

“You might want to come outside. There’s some police out here beside the Alehouse,” Khoury said the general manager told him during his testimony Thursday.

‘They attacked me’

Ryan Sawyer died following an altercation outside the Halifax Alehouse around 1:15 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2022. He and his brother, Kyle, had just been kicked out of the bar following a separate altercation inside after Kyle spilled his beer on another bargoer, Kyle earlier testified.

Alexander Pishori Levy, 40, is accused of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death. Thursday marked day four of the former bouncer’s trial.

Khoury testified he went outside and straight to Levy after the call and asked him what happened.

“Alex looked at me and said, ‘I didn’t do anything, I didn’t sign up for this, they jumped me,’” said Khoury.

He said he told Levy to calm down because he was excited and nervous while recounting what happened, describing a “fight of some sort” that happened upstairs.

“We got them outside; they walked out on their own,” Khoury testified Levy told him.

As Khoury recounted the conversation he added the bouncer said the pair “turned around and attacked me.”

“‘They attacked me, I don’t know what happened, why they attacked me, they attacked me.’ He said it two or three times,” Khoury testified.

Levy told him he was wrestling with (the Sawyers), rolling around, before being spat on or thrown up on.

“‘As soon as he stopped resisting, I let go and put my arms up,’” Levy said, according to Khoury’s testimony.

Halifax Regional Police Const. Jairus Lamphier told the trial on Monday when he arrived on scene, “It looked to me like (Ryan Sawyer) was unconscious, and he wasn’t breathing. I grew very concerned.”

He told the trial he pulled Levy’s arms off Sawyer and checked for a pulse.

Khoury said he then went to speak with another bouncer to determine what happened, but he saw a police officer put handcuffs on Levy to arrest him, so he went to retrieve Levy’s radio.

Levy laid off, bouncers faced threats: owner

Marcel Khoury, Michel’s brother and former bar co-owner, told the trial Levy never returned to work after the incident because “he didn’t want to come back, so we laid him off.”

Defence lawyer Jack Bennet suggested to Marcel Khoury that there was a “mutual belief” that if Levy continued working, other bouncers could face “a risk of danger given the public perception in this case.”

Khoury agreed, adding there would be customers who would walk by, “threatening security staff.”

Lack of training

Marcel Khoury said the Alehouse and neighbouring bar were family-owned businesses, which he and his brother took over running in 2002.

The Alehouse had a capacity of about 350 to 400 people, he said, and it varied how often bargoers would be asked to leave or escorted out.

Some weeks there would be no incidents, he said. But during others, they’d see “more people” taken out for over-intoxication, adding it wasn’t as common to have people removed for physical confrontations.

He told the trial that security staff “received training years ago,” but that he “wasn’t aware of the latest training … or how frequent it was.”

When asked by Crown prosecutor Rob Kennedy if he was aware of any use-of-force training, Khoury said, “No,” adding he didn’t attend or fund any training sessions prior to December 2022.

“We didn’t have a requirement” for security staff to undergo training, he said.

Michel Khoury said the establishment’s former general manager would explain policies and procedures and do “walk-throughs” with bouncers.

“We didn’t actually have (training) mandated in any way, it was just policies and procedures,” he said.

Following Sawyer’s death, his family has advocated for provincial regulation around bar security guards, as recently as last week.

Lee Sawyer, Ryan’s mother, told a legislative committee there is an “urgent need for robust regulation and accountability in Nova Scotia’s bars and venues.”

The Crown is expected to call four more witnesses when the trial resumes on Tuesday, at which point prosecutors hope to be finished presenting their case to Justice James Chipman.

It would then be up to Levy, whether or not the defence would call any evidence.

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