Iran Accuses Canadian Police of Killing Iranian

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran accused Canadian police on Thursday of the "criminal" killing of an Iranian, ratcheting up a diplomatic dispute that began with the death in Iranian custody of a Canadian journalist this month.

Iranian state media said Canadian police in Vancouver had attacked three young Iranians, killing one and injuring one of the others. It identified the dead man as Keyvan Tabesh and demanded those responsible be brought to justice.

Iran and Canada are 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 custody. Canada recalled its envoy to Tehran over the incident and said it would review its ties with Iran.

"Why have Canadian police, who should safeguard the security of the people, committed this disgraceful crime which scared Iranian citizens living in Canada?" Iranian radio quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying.

Iran's state media said the incident happened on Tuesday. But Canadian media say Tabesh, 18, was shot by a policeman in the Port Moody suburb of Vancouver on July 14 after an apparent road-rage incident in which he brandished a machete.

The Canadian government rejected what it said was any attempt to compare the death of Tabesh with that of a journalist who died after being arrested.

"Let's keep our cool here. Let's not fall into sheer hysteria...both sides must refrain from making statements which may complicate matters further," an official told Reuters.

The language used by Iranian officials echoed that of the Canadian government when it demanded Tehran identify and punish those responsible for Kazemi's death.

"Iran wants the Canadian government to give an explicit and transparent and satisfactory explanation about this criminal act and to hand over those responsible for this regrettable event to justice," the radio quoted Asefi as saying.

Kazemi's case has sparked a major political row in Iran, with reformist allies of President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) saying it highlighted the operation of shadowy security services outside the government's control.

An initial Iranian inquiry said Kazemi died of a brain hemorrhage but it failed to determine whether the blow to her head was deliberate and who might be responsible. A further investigation has been ordered.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Asefi as saying Canadian media had censored the Vancouver incident. "The strong censorship of this story creates more ambiguities," it quoted him as saying.

Kazemi was buried on Wednesday in Iran against the wishes of her son. Canada, which insisted the body should be returned to Kazemi's home city of Montreal, condemned the burial and said it would withdraw its ambassador.

The journalist died on July 10, more than two weeks after she was arrested for taking pictures outside a prison in Tehran where many political dissidents are held.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030724/wl_canada_nm/canada_iran_portmoody_col_1 Small-Town Canadian Police Caught in Iran Dispute Thu Jul 24, 2:45 PM ET

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - 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. Canada recalled its envoy to Tehran over the incident and said it would review its ties with Iran.

Port Moody Police Department spokesman Constable Brian Soles said the department is still investigating the July 14 incident in which Iranian immigrant Keyvan Tabesh was shot to death after, according to reports, attacking a police officer while brandishing a machete.

"We're just Port Moody, we're just doing our investigation here. As far as that (Iran's allegations) goes, that's a matter for Ottawa to deal with," Soles said.

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. 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.

"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.

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.

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.

From the online site of my home town's weekly newspaper:

One dead, one wounded after Moody shooting

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One dead, one wounded after Moody shooting

By Ron Devitt - Staff Reporter

An 18-year-old Burnaby man who was shot by a Port Moody police officer after allegedly rushing at him with an 18-inch machete was extremely agitated at the time of the incident, a police spokesman said.

Port Moody Police Const. Brian Soles said shooting victim Keyvan Tabesh had been "angry" that evening, but would not go into details as to what had agitated the young man.

Tabesh allegedly bumped another car on the street with the Honda Prelude he was driving, and attacked its two female occupants with the machete, before attacking a plainclothes officer early Monday.

"Based on his actions, you could tell this guy was angry and had been all evening," Soles said, adding the man's family did not want the source of Tabesh's anger released to the media.

The names and ages of two Coquitlam men involved in the incident have not been released.

One neighbour, who asked not to be identified, said he was going to bed when he heard gunshots in his normally quiet cul-de-sac. He could not say how many shots were fired, but said he felt police performed the way they should in such a situation.

"I think the police did a good job, in a tough situation. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be in that situation," said the St. George Street resident. "I just don't like the idea of people running from the law. That's what disturbs me, there's no respect for the law."

Police have confirmed five shots were fired at the scene and two men were taken to hospital. An autopsy was performed on Tabesh Tuesday.

An unidentified Coquitlam man remains in hospital with undetermined injuries and a third man, also from Coquitlam, has been released from police custody.

Soles said shortly before 2 a.m. on Monday, a police officer was approached by two women who said they had been attacked by a man with a machete while they were in their car at the intersection of Moray and St. Johns streets.

They told police their vehicle had been bumped by another, and an armed man had climbed out and threatened them.

"The armed male got out of the Honda and began smashing the victim's vehicle with the machete, breaking a window," Soles said.

Police originally believed the two Coquitlam men were in the car at the time of the first incident, but Soles said they were picked up shortly afterwards.

Soles said while the officer was interviewing the two women, the Honda drove by the scene.

Soles said the officer attempted to follow the vehicle, which was travelling westbound on St. Johns Street.

He said police lost sight of the car, but its licence plate and description had been passed on to other units.

He said the 25-year-police veteran was in plainclothes and driving an unmarked vehicle in the area, after conducting interviews with robbery suspects in an unrelated matter.

"He was just driving down the hill when he saw these guys tuck in" to a cul-de-sac in the 2000 block of St. George Street, Soles said, adding the officer blocked the dead-end street with his vehicle.

"The suspects got out of their vehicle and confronted the member," Soles said, adding he believes the plainclothes officer would have identified himself as a police officer.

"As far as we know that was the case," Soles said. "We haven't concluded our interviews with the people who witnessed the incident. But we can't conclude (that the officer identified himself) until we conduct all our interviews."

He said the department has come under scrutiny because of the shooting, but added he is confident the officer acted in accordance with his police training.

He said there were plenty of alternatives available to the three men in the car, one of them being to run into the bush at the end of the cul-de-sac.

"If people want to speculate that (the three men) didn't really believe or understand he was a police officer ... then they were attacking a citizen with a machete," Soles said. "Unfortunately, a mistake was made and these guys made the mistake.

"It is a tragedy in more than one sense, given the person's age. But it's totally a situation brought on by these individuals - they were the aggressors in this situation."

Soles said there was less than 15 feet of space between the officer and the men getting out of the car.

"It's all happening in a flash," Soles said. "This officer has significant experience. This is not a rookie who has never been through this before."

He said he has already been defending the officer's actions to citizens voicing concern.

"A knife's going to kill you just as surely as a bullet," Soles said. "That person was more than close enough to kill that officer with a machete."

He said police training films on edged weapons teach officers how to react in such situations.

"It shows how lethal a knife can be at close range," said Soles.

He said the veteran officer did not have pepper spray or a taser at his disposal at the time of the incident.

"This officer was not working; he was in to do an interview, so he didn't have those things," Soles said.

And, he said, police are not trained to shoot an attacker's hand or aim at the offending weapon, as is sometimes depicted in movies and television.

"We're not trained to shoot to kill, we're trained to shoot to centre body mass and stop the threat to kill," Soles said.

He said to his knowledge, the 25-year-veteran officer, whose police experience includes two years in Port Moody, had never fired his weapon in the line of duty before Monday.

"The vast majority of us do not in our careers, and the reason is we're not allowed to unless our life is threatened or someone else's life is being threatened," Soles said.

The police member has taken a leave and is receiving critical-incident counselling.

"The detachment will support him any way they can and he will be back on regular duty when he feels he can come back," Soles said, adding police statistics show only one in six police officers involved in a shooting fatality return to active duty.

Soles said he believes the last time a Port Moody officer fired a weapon in the line of duty was in 1990, when a break and enter suspect got hold of an officer's weapon. Another officer shot him with a shotgun.

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