Warning: This story contains graphic details
Flowers mark the memorial outside the Palagio Pizza restaurant at an outdoor shopping mall on Douglas Street near Burnside Road in Victoria.
Just 36 hours earlier, a fatal stabbing left one man dead in front of the business.
CHEK News confirmed the identity of the fatal stabbing victim with residents of Crosstown, a supportive housing facility which is just two doors down from the pizza parlour, as Oliver Nicholson.
“John” is a resident of the Crosstown supportive housing facility and knew Nicholson. “He was fairly cool for the most part, but he got into the heroin, which kind of took him away.”
Nicholson lived at the Crosstown facility, formerly known as the Tally Ho, for more than four years.
Sean Hess also lives at Crosstown, which is operated by Cool-Aid Society, and told CHEK News that he knew Nicholson.
“What are staff telling you?” asked CHEK News on Thursday.
“They told me who it was,” said Hess. “It’s Oliver. I know exactly.”
Before he wound up at Crosstown, Nicholson – who also went by Ollie Aux – lived on the streets of Victoria for at least eight years.
Video from a 2016 CHEK News report shows Nicholson living in a tent behind Victoria’s courthouse, until officials dismantled the encampment that had grown on the property.
Then he moved temporarily into the Mount Edwards facility before transferring to the Choices facility in View Royal, run by Our Place Society.
He took part in an art show there and could often be seen carrying a skateboard around. His Facebook page is also full of pictures of his art.
He eventually moved into Crosstown sometime around 2019-2020.
In April 2022, he was the victim of a violent attack inside Crosstown related to a unpaid drug debt.
The court judgement found that he was beat up, taped to a chair, and set on fire inside a suite.
Five people, some of them fellow residents of Crosstown, were found guilty in the attack.
Police are still not saying anything about a possible suspect, only that no arrests in the stabbing have been made.
READ MORE: ‘It’s nerve-wracking’: Businesses reopen after fatal stabbing at Victoria’s Douglas Centre
Mary Griffin
