Dennis Tissington became famous, or infamous, after a video titled “Psycho Old Man Smashes Windows Out With Baton” was uploaded to YouTube. This is a perfect example of how there are two sides to every story. Damion Dallyn, the driver, is painted as an innocent victim waiting to be paid for an honest day’s work. Tissington’s family argues that Dallyn had been threatening them with acts of violence just 15 minutes before the fight captured on video.
Watch the video below then read the statements made by Dallyn and Stojan. Who do you think is the real villain in this story?
History
Dennis Tissington of Grande Prairie in Alberta, Canada was arrested and charged with mischief in August, 2016. The 67-year-old was caught on video smashing the windows of Damian Dallyn’s car.
Dallyn told CTV News he was engaged in a two-year-old landscaping dispute with Tissington’s step-son, Tyler Stojan, and Stojan’s neighbor. The video below was recorded while Dallyn was sitting in a car parked outside of Stojan’s home.
After the video went viral, Stojan hired a lawyer with the intention of filing a defamation lawsuit against Dallyn.
The Driver’s Perspective
The following statement was written by the driver and posted in the video’s YouTube description:
The man in the video is Dennis Tissington and the guy to call him via phone to come and assault me is Tyler Stojan with vision homes.
I stopped by to have a civil conversation about some money that was payed to him get some work done. He scammed a small business.
Last year this small business hit a gas line when 2 employees were not paying attention. Tyler Stojan was having some concrete work done that had just been poured but was evacuated for safety. He claimed that the evacuation left his concrete to set improperly. Asked for a large some of cash from this small company, the company paid to stay on good terms with Tyler and the neighborhood, this was a mistake. As Tyler pocketed the money given to him and a year later never fixed any concrete. The concrete has nothing wrong with it, set fine and looks perfect.He committed fraud by asking and taking payment for something he was never going to do anything with. There is a paper trail for this payment made.
I stopped by to ask what he had done with said money, and if he was going to fix anything, he replied “iv got the money in my pocket” and than told me to go fuck myself, I proceeded back to my car while explaining that this is fraud over $5000, section 380 cc. Punishable up to 14 years in prison for all the people involved. I did not swear, raise my voice, call him names or threaten him in any way.
He got upset He had a temper tantrum, called Dennis, his father in law, to come assault me with a weapon.
No the company I work for is not being sued for hitting a gas line, the company paid the bills owing for repairs and gas loss to Atco. No other damages were caused.
I think iv got it all there. That is the story.”
The Homeowner’s Perspective
The following statement was written by Tyler Stojan and posted to Facebook in response to the incident:
The Other Side.
This will be my only posting about the social media frenzy about my family and I am not looking to fight a battle on social media but this all needs to end.My name is Tyler Stojan and I was born and raised in Grande Prairie. I am the owner operator of Vision Homes and a proud member of the community. Damian Dallynn, the son of the owner of All in One Landscaping, a B.C company, has and is conducting a fraudulent campaign against me, my family and my business.
FACT- All in One Landscaping were hired and paid in cash to landscape my neighbors yard, complete with retaining walls, lamp post and more in 2014. During construction- because they didn’t do the required call before you dig- hit the main gas line causing the subdivision to be evacuated. At the time of the evacuation my concrete finisher had just placed the concrete for my sidewalks and because of the evacuation could not finish them until much later in the day and unfortunately could not do much to them. The owner of All In One landscaping agreed to reimburse me the funds I will need to do the repairs on my sidewalks. All In One Landscaping was additionally charged $30,000 by Atco Gas because of the damage and obvious disregard for construction rules. In 2015 All In One landscaping started verbally harassing my neighbor, my concrete finisher and myself saying we still owed them money. My neighbor told them that they had been paid in full and to go away. To be clear, I have never hired All In One Landscaping to do any work for me or my company and clearly never will. The money that Murfield Donohue and Damien Dallyn are referring to is the money I received to allow me to repair my sidewalks.
In 2016, approximately a month ago. All In One landscaping ramped up the verbal threats on my neighbor and when he refused any further payment, were told they would be sorry. Within a matter of hours Murfield Donohue, Damian Dallyn and two others returned with a bobcat and did a demolition run destroying retaining walls, lamp posts and trees. Charges have been filed and a restraining order is in place. They have not yet been to court.
The owner of All In One Landscaping, Murfield Donohue once again sent his son Damion Dallyn to my personal residence last Saturday demanding money from me because I have not repaired my sidewalks. I informed him that I owe him nothing, and would be paying him nothing and to get off my property and not to come back. Damion proceeded to make threats to me and my family, also threatening to sue. Again he was told to leave and not to come back. He drove away, only to return approximately 15 minutes later to do a slow drive by, then parked across from my driveway watching myself and my wife in the yard while I was cutting grass. We were very concerned about his attentions and whether he was armed. Our two small children were in the house.Due to the damage that was done at the neighbors house only weeks before, our family had discussed a plan of action if these people were to ever try something at our place. They did tell our neighbors that they would be going to our place next. We as a family decided that phone calls would be made to the RCMP as well as added family for safety. If they were willing to round up numerous people and a bobcat to cause so much damage and destruction who knows how far they would take it. I stuck to the plan and called the RCMP as well as my parents, my step father came over right away.
The rest is the video that you have all seen and judged. My step father seen on the video told Damian his name, waited for the RCMP and cooperated fully and has been charged.
FACT- I have seen my lawyer and am obtaining a restraining order and an order to cease and desist with the social media attack on my family and my business. I am also launching a lawsuit for slander and defamation of character.
FACT- An hour after this incident a boulder was thrown through the front door of my office with a note attached saying “ Please my children are everything! What you did endangers them. They are all that we got. Pay backs a bitch”
I have handed in video surveillance footage to the RCMP and they have fingerprinted the note and are awaiting the results. We also understand from the RCMP that we are not the only people being intimidated and threatened.
If you are dealing with All In One Landscaping and paying cash for work you might want to re-think any involvement with them.
Ask yourself one question- If someone threatened you at your home where your wife and children are, how would you react?
I would like to thank family, friends, business colleagues, clients and even total strangers for their overwhelming support in this matter.”
Police Response
Dallyn told the Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police refused to accept his video as evidence after the fight. “I didn’t like the fact that they (RCMP) didn’t want the video whatsoever and they told me that it couldn’t be used in court,” he explained. “Now, I posted (it) on (social) media and since I have, the police have asked me for the video for evidence.”
Cpl. Shawn Graham of the Grande Prairie RCMP said that Tissington was charged, but both parties were responsible for the altercation. “Staying in that situation, you risk safety of yourself, safety of other people and the situation may not deescalate,” he said. “In most circumstances it will continue to escalate because you’re there in that situation. It’s kind of like that flight or fight (scenario) but it’s better to get yourself out of it right and get yourself away from it, especially if someone has a weapon. Then you need to get out of there, call the police and then the police can come in and deal with the situation.”
Graham says that Dallyn’s focus should have been focused on the altercation instead of a video. “What they do have to do is let the police conduct an investigation so the police can gather all the evidence, which may include surveillance video from around the area, may include whatever is at the scene, statements, if there’s any physical evidence so that a proper investigation can be done into the matter,” he continued. “We certainly can gather evidence from Facebook and other social media sites.”
He elaborated to say that Facebook evidence includes more than just videos and photographs. “You have to be guarded in doing things like that,” Graham said. “You can’t take it back if you put something out there that doesn’t necessarily put you in a good light. It’s out there forever and you have to live with the fact that it’s out there.”