Homicide victim survived attempted hit in 2006

Convicted killer Milad Saffari served two years in jail for his role in a vicious beating death at a Richmond growing operation back in 2002.

On Wednesday night, it was Saffari who was marked for death.

The 27-year-old gangster was killed in a targeted shooting after leaving a Coquitlam gym beside the Superstore on Lougheed Highway.

Saffari had been targeted by gunmen before. He suffered minor gunshot wounds in 2006 in North Vancouver, when several men opened fire on him. Four were charged, but the charges were dropped a short time later for lack of evidence.

Lawyer Danny Markovitz said at the time that he represented Saffari and some of the accused and that the shooting was “just a complete misunderstanding” between friends. Markovitz blamed police for unfairly targeting Iranians.

Saffari’s vehicle was shot up in the 2006 incident. He was also in his vehicle – a black Mercedes – when he was shot Wednesday.

At the time of his slaying, Saffari was awaiting trial for refusing to give a breath sample in Vancouver last year.

He was also convicted in 2006 of assault causing bodily harm for attacking a fellow prisoner while in the North Fraser Pretrial Centre because the victim called someone on the kitchen work team a “goof.”

Cpl. Dale Carr of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said the investigators continued Thursday “to canvass the area and track down associates of the victim.”

“We will say that this is a targeted homicide which by all accounts from what we know at this time is linked to criminal activity,” Carr said.

“The victim is known to police.”

It was a busy night for IHIT members, who were called out to a Surrey domestic murder just three hours after the Coquitlam slaying. The suspect in that case shot himself to death hours later as police were closing in on him.

Carr said IHIT is deliberately structured as a series of teams so different groups of investigators can deal with new files even if they come one right after the other. “We are designed for these very types of situations.”

He said even though the suspect in the Surrey murder killed himself, investigators must follow up to confirm he was the person who killed a young woman about 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

Cloverdale residents near 67 Avenue and 193 Street called 911 to report several shots had been fired.

Police arrived to find the victim lying in the middle of the roadway on 67th Avenue suffering from multiple gunshot injuries. She died at the scene.

“We are not at this time in a position to speak about the relationship between the person found with self-inflicted fatal injuries and the female victim,” Carr said.

“We can say that he was a person that police were wanting to speak to regarding the homicide; we have not conclusively linked him as the person responsible for the murder.”

kbolan@vancouversun.com

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