Nova Scotia's Crown attornies want tighter security in courthouses across the province after a brawl outside a Dartmouth courtroom.
It took eight sheriff's deputies and an RCMP officer to break up the fight, which erupted between two groups after a sentencing hearing on Wednesday.
Crown attorney Roland Levesque tells CTV it was a chaotic scene.
"There was screaming, yelling, punches were being thrown, people were assaulting each other," he said. "It was sort of like a mini-riot."
Rick Woodburn, head of the Crown Attorney's Association says it's unacceptable that there's still no permanent walk-through metal detector at the Dartmouth courthouse.
"I'm not exactly sure what it's going to take, but somebody should stand up and take a look at the situation and not just keep studying it," he said. "Because if you're going to keep studying it, somebody's going to get killed."
Woodburn points out the notorious local crime figure Jimmy Melvin Jr. and another man accused of murder appeared at the Dartmouth courthouse last week - and people entering the building were not screened.
Sherri Aikenhead with the Department of Justice tells the Herald, sherriff's deputies conduct daily risk assessments based on who's expected in court and can set up metal detectors if they're deemed necessary.
No one was seriously injured during Wednesday's fight.