notorious Iranian-born brothers attended a late night birthday party in central Vancouver that ended with a gangland shootout and 10 injured people.
In late October, authorities in Vancouver arrested Iranian-Canadian gangster Siavash Askari, 27, at Vancouver International Airport after he and his 26-year-old brother, Sahand, returned from a two-year stint in Iran.
Siavash was soon bailed out of jail. And law enforcement officers report that both Askari brothers were present during the shootout earlier this month. Despite their two-year sojourn in Iran, police say the brothers continue to be tied to a major Vancouver gang.
The shooting happened in front of a restaurant in Vancou-ver’s residential Shaughnessy neighborhood. Dozens of bystanders called 911 after hearing shots and police arrived on the scene. One of the callers was the mayor of Vancouver, who lives near the site of the shootout.
Detective Doug Spencer, a police officer on the Metro Vancouver gang beat, said the shootout was likely a result of longtime tension between rival gangs.
“Some go back to high school—10, 15 years ago—and they won’t go away,” Spencer told CTV News, adding, “They find out they’ll be going to a birthday party, they’ll be going to Metrotown, so phone calls are made and they go get him,” the officer said.
Police say the shooting might have had something to do with the fact that there had been an assassination attempt on Sahand earlier this month. Sahand was left uninjured after the drive-by shooting, but two others in the same vehicle were hit several times. Both are expected to survive.
Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu said the shooting is all about an ongoing feud which boiled over when longtime gangster and Askari rival Gurmit Singh Dhak was shot to death outside Metrotown Mall October 17, about a week before the Askari brothers returned to Canada.
Siavash has a series of convictions dating back to 2002 for a range of offences from assault causing bodily harm and resisting arrest to driving while prohibited and violating court-ordered conditions. But the most serious charge he faced, attempted murder in connection with a nightclub shooting in September 2006, was later thrown out.
The reported assassination attempt on Sahand was not his first encounter with enemy fire; in 2007 he was wounded during a shootout just outside Van-couver.
Upon the arrival of the Iranian-Canadian brothers to Vancouver in October, Sgt. Shinder Kirk of the Gang Task Force told The Vancouver Sun, “They are extremely well-known within the gang environment of Metro Vancouver.”
Vancouver is the only city in North America where large numbers of Iranians are active in gang activity. A few gangs are Iranian-run, like the Persian Knights, but Iranians are members of other gangs as well. Many gangs are ethnically integrated. But the gang appeal is chiefly to Asian immigrants, not native-born Canadians.
