Shooting victim has been in line of fire before
The man police believe escaped a west-end restaurant shooting more than two years ago is now clinging to life in hospital after being targeted in another shooting, the Citizen has learned.
Behzad Behruzi, 32, was taken to hospital with a life-threatening gunshot wound to the chest just after 1 a.m. Tuesday. He remained in surgery much of the morning.
Police responded to reports of shots fired in Bayshore in the area of Reid Haven Road, near the intersection of Barwell Avenue and Alenmede Crescent. There, officers found multiple bullet holes in a window of a silver Ford Focus.
A short time later, Behruzi called 911 from a nearby park, police believe, reporting that he had been shot. He would only identify himself as “John Smith” to a police force that has his information on record.
Behruzi was taken to the trauma centre. As police continued to scour the area, they found a second vehicle, riddled by gunfire on the driver’s side, that had crashed onto a driveway on Barwell Avenue. A third vehicle — a parked blue SUV — had seemingly been rammed from behind.
Police searched the Bayshore area Tuesday afternoon for evidence, including guns used in the shooting. West-end detectives continued to investigate, but no arrests had been made.
Behruzi is well-known to antigang and homicide detectives. In January 2016, police believe, he managed to flee from the rear of a Somali restaurant before bullets intended for him killed a friend.
The shooter, who has never been arrested, tried to fire at Behruzi before the gunman was chased out of the front of the restaurant.
The armed man then returned and shot Marwan Arab, 20, in the head, as he left the washroom at the tiny Shifa Restaurant in a strip mall on Cobden Road, near Woodroffe Avenue and Baseline Road. He died instantly. His cousin, Ayyub Arab, then 22, was shot once in a hand and twice in the chest, but narrowly survived.
Days later, Behruzi was arrested in a pre-emptive move by police to thwart potential retaliation for the killing.
Three people were arrested at a home on Castlefrank Road in Kanata and four others were arrested in a traffic stop near Arnprior.
Behruzi was charged with weapons offences, including possession of a 12-gauge shotgun, and drug possession.
He was convicted of weapons and drug offences later in 2016. He also has convictions for drug possession in 2015.
In 2014, he was convicted of obstructing a police officer and sentenced to a month behind bars. In 2012, Behruzi was convicted of assault causing bodily harm and sentenced to four months in jail and a year of probation.