'Senseless': Football star ID'd as victim of fatal Rideau Street shooting

A former high school and university football star from Ottawa was fatally shot early Monday morning after an argument at a Rideau Street bar spilled out onto the street and turned deadly.

Ashton Dickson, 25, who played running back at St. Patrick's High School in Ottawa and later at St. Francis Xavier University, has been identified as the victim in the fatal shooting.

Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau told reporters the incident began as a "minor argument" inside the Mingle Room Bar and Grill before spilling out into the street.

"This is a tragic homicide, a needless, senseless death that occurred of a young man in our community, another example of the escalation, the rapid escalation of violence. A simple argument that starts inside a bar and spills out to the street, and we have a dead person on our streets. Not acceptable," Bordeleau said.

"People bring guns and they use them very quickly."

Bordeleau said some witnesses inside the bar fled before police arrived, and appealed to them to come forward.

"We're appealing to their conscience to come forward and to provide any information that they have so that we can bring those individuals responsible for that senseless death to justice."

Bordeleau said there's no indication the shooting was gang-related.

The police chief said police have not responded to many calls for service at the Mingle Room, but this fatal shooting and another incident last week has led the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario to review the bar's operations.

"We had another call at that establishment just last week, a stabbing and reported shooting," Bordeleau said. "Certainly, two incidents in the past week we're working closely with the bar owners and the AGCO to see what we can do to ensure that that area remains safe."

Pronounced dead at scene

Officers responding to 911 calls about shots fired around 1 a.m. arrived to find Dickson injured, and the shooter gone. Dickson was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Carole Soikie lives in a nearby apartment and said she hadn't been able to sleep after hearing first words being exchanged outside, then a shot.

"It's like we're in a movie. [Like] they're shooting a movie over there," she said.

"I thought it was thunder but indeed, I looked outside and it wasn't raining. It was a gunshot," said Malcolm Miller, who also lives nearby and said he doesn't feel safe in the area.

Both Soikie and Miller singled out the Mingle Room as a source of the violence in their neighbourhood.

Monday's death comes less than four days after shots were fired and a 25-year-old man was stabbed outside the same bar. Bordeleau said he expects the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario to review the bar's licence.

"When you have two incidents in a short period of time with that level of violence, certainly it's the AGCO's responsibility to come in and review the licensing and to see if there's anything that they can do in order to ensure that that area remains safe."

Dreamed of CFL career

According to Khadija Harris, who said she raised Dickson from the age of five, the fight at the Mingle Room began with an argument about a lineup for the men's room.

Harris, who also raised one of Dickson's three brothers, said she got a call from the brother an hour or two after the shooting.

"His brother said to me, 'Khadija, Ashton got shot.' I go, 'What do you mean he got shot, where is he, in the hospital?' He said, 'No, he died,'" Harris said through tears.

"He was my child."

Harris said Dickson was not the kind of person to get in fights.

"Ashton is the kind of person that, if someone called him to fight, he would say no."

While playing at St. Francis Xavier University, Dickson was a finalist for the 2015 Hec Crighton Award, given annually to Canadian university football's most outstanding player.

Harris said Dickson was disappointed when he didn't make it into professional football, and was working hard to overcome that setback.

"He loved football ... that was his dream, to play with the CFL," she said.

Harris said she recently found out Dickson and his longtime girlfriend were expecting a child.

'Not the kind to start a fight'

Close friend Carlos Nembhard, who's known Dickson for 20 years and played football with him, said he was shattered by the news.

"Just knowing that he's gone right now is really messing me up," Nembhard said.

He said it wasn't in his friend's character to get into fights at bars.

"If he sees an altercation he's the type to just walk away from that. He's not the kind to start a fight or look for a fight," Nembhard said.

"Ashton was just one of those guys where, he was always trying to do something good for somebody, or he was always trying to help someone, He was just one of those guys who you always wanted to be around because he was always in a good mood."

Nembhard said many of his friends thought Dickson would make it into the CFL one day.

"We honestly thought that he was the one that would [make it] to a professional league."

6th homicide of 2017

Rideau Street closed between Cobourg and Chapel streets for the police investigation, which is being led by the major crimes unit.

There have been no reports of a suspect or any arrests.

Police say there were many witnesses to what happened and anyone who saw something related to the shooting should talk to an officer.

This is the sixth homicide in Ottawa in 2017. That includes a shooting suspect who was shot and killed by an Ottawa police officer earlier this month, which is under investigation by the independent Special Investigations Unit.