HALIFAX — Police in Halifax are looking for a woman accused of assaulting a man days before he died at an encampment for homeless people.
Halifax Regional Police say Nova Scotia's medical examiner service recently confirmed the man was the victim of a homicide.
On Dec. 22, officers were dispatched to the encampment in Dartmouth, where they were told the man had been assaulted by a female. But the man refused medical treatment and told police he didn't want an investigation.
Four days later, 56-year-old Jeffrey Alexander Emmerson was found dead inside a tent near Geary Street.
Police say the woman they are looking for is white, four feet ten inches tall, between 20 and 25 years old, with shoulder-length dark hair.
In July 2020, the Geary Street site was one of nine locations within the Halifax region officially designated as temporary encampments for unhoused people amid a widespread housing shortage.
On May 28, the municipality confirmed the Geary Street encampment would be "de-designated" and the four people sleeping rough there were told they had until June 22 to move to a provincially funded shelter or to another of the municipality’s four remaining designated encampments.
"Municipal … staff and navigators have been on site multiple times offering supports and resources," the municipality said in a statement released Wednesday, adding that those leaving the site would be provided with transportation and storage for their belongings.
Before noon on Wednesday, the three remaining people at the Geary Street location agreed to move and a fence was erected around the site to allow for a cleanup.
Municipal housing officials say that as of June 20, there were 48 tents and four trailers in the municipality’s four remaining designated locations.
"The municipality is constantly assessing the need for designated locations," the municipality's statement says. "As more indoor shelter spaces and supportive housing options become available, more municipal designated locations will be closed, de-designated and returned to their intended purposes as spaces for everyone."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2025.
The Canadian Press
