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| Great White North | ||
| Small-Town Canadian Police Caught in Iran Dispute | ||
| 2003-07-25 | ||
Police in the Vancouver suburb of Port Moody, British Columbia, admitted surprise and some dismay on Thursday at finding themselves in the middle of diplomatic storm between Canada and Iran. Iran accused Canadian police on Thursday of the "criminal" killing of an 18-year-old Iranian immigrant. Iran and Canada are already at odds over Zahra Kazemi, 54, a Canadian photojournalist of Iranian descent who died in Tehran after suffering a severe blow to the head while in police custody.
"It’s way above my pay grade." Port Moody is a rapidly growing community of about 25,000 people about 10 km (6.5 miles) east of Vancouver. Tabesh lived in Burnaby, British Columbia, another Vancouver suburb. According to witnesses interviewed by police, the early morning incident began when two women complained that Tabesh had rammed their vehicle with his car, hit the vehicle repeatedly with a machete and then drove off. Officers spotted Tabesh’s car while interviewing the women. Sounds like he drove back to the scene of the crime, saw the cops and took off. A plainclothes officer followed him and and reported he fired several shots after Tabesh got out of his car and ran at him with the machete, police said. "You’ll never take me alive...Ouch, Ouch!" "Everything we have been able to uncover about this kid and his past character and incidents that had concerned him confirm (the original report)," Boles said. Kid’s got a record, cops ain’t talking about it, yet. He said witnesses include two youths who were in Tabesh’s car, one of whom was wounded in the incident. The incident received widespread coverage in the Vancouver media because police shootings are very rare. Tabesh’s parents, who moved to Canada two years ago, have accused police of illegally shooting their son, who they said carried a weapon because he had been attacked by an unknown individual shortly after arriving in Canada. Uh huh. Boles said Port Moody is committed to a "transparent and satisfactory" investigation of the shooting, echoing the words used by officials in both Tehran and Ottawa in their diplomatic dispute. The officer who shot Tabesh, whose name has not been released, is on paid leave pending the completion of the investigation. He is a 25-year veteran of police work and is described as being "traumatized" by what happened. So far this sounds like a valid shooting. | ||
| Posted by:Steve |
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| Posted by: PD 2003-7-26 12:38:06 AM |
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| Posted by: jason 2003-7-25 8:00:09 PM |
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| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-7-25 2:02:04 PM |
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| Posted by: PD 2003-7-25 1:51:03 PM |
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| Posted by: debbie 2003-7-25 1:43:55 PM |