Suspect in Middle Sackville hate crime wanted on B.C. sex-related charges

A man arrested in Lower Sackville last month after an apparent hate-motivated assault is wanted on a warrant in British Columbia, where he allegedly skipped out on sex-related charges involving a child.

Scott Alonzo Merk, 31, of no fixed address faces four charges from an incident at a Tim Hortons shop on Sackville Drive in Middle Sackville on the night of Jan. 17.

RCMP responded just before 9 p.m. to a report of an assault outside the coffee shop. Officers learned that a man had made racial slurs to another man during a verbal altercation inside the shop.

The altercation then moved outside, where the man who had made the slurs assaulted the other individual with a sensory irritant before fleeing on foot.

The victim, a 30-year-old Lower Sackville man, suffered minor injuries, RCMP said. He was treated at the scene by paramedics.
 
At about 11:15 that night, officers apprehended the suspect, Merk, at the Halifax Transit bus terminal on Cobequid Road.

“Information gathered by investigators indicates that the offence was motivated by hate, based on the race of the victim,” RCMP said in a news release in January.

Merk was arraigned in Dartmouth provincial court Jan. 18 on charges of assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, unauthorized possession of a prohibited weapon, and breaching a weapons prohibition.

Merk appeared in court again Thursday via a video link from jail.

Crown attorney Greg Morris announced there was a warrant for Merk’s arrest in B.C.

The warrant was issued in Victoria in May 2023 after Merk failed to show up for court on charges of sexual interference, sexual assault and child luring.

Court documents from B.C. indicate the offences were allegedly committed in Saanich between April 2020 and July 2021 and involved a child under the age of 16.

Merk was allegedly living in Port Alberni, B.C., when he was charged with the sexual offences.

At the request of the prosecutor, Judge Brad Sarson remanded Merk on both sets of charges. He gave police from B.C. six days to travel to Nova Scotia to execute the arrest warrant.

“Police from British Columbia may come down to pick you up,” Sarson told Merk. “It certainly seems that’s their intention, but they only have six days in which to do so.”

The Middle Sackville charges are due back in court March 5.