Gangland shooting victim in 2007: him, his, character, reported, friends

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Gangland shooting victim in 2007: 35-year-old Vahid Mahanian now missing



A North Vancouver man wounded four years ago in a gangland shooting has been reported missing by relatives.

Vahid Mahanian, 35, went for lunch with two friends in Vancouver on June 27 and has not been seen since, according to North Vancouver RCMP.


Police say Mahanian's mother and fiance reported him missing June 30 and say his disappearance is very out of character for him.


He is described as having a medium build, with black hair and brown eyes. At the time he was last seen, Mahanian was wearing a blue t-shirt, shorts and white runners. He is believed to be driving a blue 1994 Pontiac Gran Am with BC license plate 051 RAN.


Mahanian spent two full years recovering from injuries he sustained when two groups opened fire on each other in Richmond's Dover Park in January 2007.

Two others wounded in the shoot-out were gangsters Nikki Tajali and Sahand Askari. More than 150 shots were fired.

Mahanian's mother Showkat said Saturday that her son had never been in a gang, but was a childhood friend of Tajali and his brother David and had gone to the park that day to try to resolve a dispute they had with others.

"One of the brothers asked him to go. He went to help a negotiation," she said. "He just got out of the car and saw there were people with guns."

She said he hid behind his car as the shots rang out.

"He was yelling: `what are you guys doing?'" Showkat said.

Mahanian was more seriously wounded than the others and had 15 surgeries, including a hip replacement, his mother said.

"Then he was disabled for two years."

Since then, he graduated with honours from the University of B.C., she said.

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He had also applied for a pardon in connection with a Bonnie and Clyde style home invasion in North Vancouver in 1997, in which his then girlfriend -- a one-time extra on the X-Files -- was his accomplice. They were dressed in black and toting machine guns when they broke into the house of a businessman. They were sentenced to four years in jail.

His mother said the crime was a foolish mistake and that her son had really worked hard to change his life around.

She is hoping anyone with information about his disappearance will call Cpl. Michael Kokkoris at 604-969-7516.

After the Richmond shooting, her son had nothing to do with either Tajali brother, she said.

David Tajali was gunned down in Calgary in September 2009.

After the Dover Park shooting, Askari moved to Iran, but returned last fall for two months, during which time he was uninjured in a targeted shooting.


35-year-old Vahid Mahanian has not been seen since June 27. His family reported him missing on June 30.