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Sacramento Bee
Here's a clear cut case of defense of another (no pun intended).
Here's a clear cut case of defense of another (no pun intended).
After killing, man is shot by neighbor, deputies say
Man fatally stabs uncle, then is shot by neighbor, police say
By Stan Oklobdzija - [email protected].
Two men lay dead in the streets of a gated El Dorado Hills community Sunday after a man bent on destruction attacked family members with a knife, killing his uncle before being felled by a neighbor's gun, authorities said.
The mayhem broke out at about 2:30 p.m. in the 1000 block of Venezia Drive in the upscale Promontory development near the Sacramento County line.
El Dorado County Sheriff's Department investigators said a man in his 30s, visiting the home of Vahid Seyedin, 47, suddenly turned violent, trying to slash his wrists with "a metal object," before grabbing a large kitchen knife and threatening others in the house.
The residents fled for their lives into the street with the man, whose name is not being released, in close pursuit. In the intersection of Venezia Drive and Aria Court, the man caught his uncle, Ahmad Pazeky, 58, and stabbed him to death.
The man also stabbed Seyedin, who rushed to Pazeky's aid, a sheriff's office press release said.
Seyedin's next-door neighbor, Shahin Kohan, 47, was exercising in his garage when he saw the horrific scene unfold, investigators and witnesses said.
Kohan retrieved a handgun, then ran to the street and yelled for the assailant to stop.
A woman, who identified herself as Seyedin's wife but didn't want to give her first name, said Monday that the family was screaming for help.
"Shoot him, he's killing us!" she said they were yelling. "Shoot him, he's killing us!"
Kohan fired two warning shots before shooting the man once, a sheriff's press release said.
Sheriff's deputies, responding to a 911 call from the house, arrived to find the assailant lying in the roadway, still holding the knife. Deputies ordered him to put down the knife, and when he didn't comply, they shot him with a Taser, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Bryan Golmitz said.
After the man dropped the knife, efforts began to revive him and Pazeky, but "both subjects died on the scene," the press release said.
Seyedin was treated for unspecified injuries at Mercy Folsom Hospital and released.
Seyedin's wife, standing in her doorway Monday with tears in her eyes, said her husband was injured and Pazeky was killed trying to stop their relative.
"It was stupid," she said.
Golmitz said investigators aren't releasing the assailant's identity pending notification of his next of kin, who are believed to be out of the country.
He said Pazeky was visiting from Orange County and that the initial investigation indicates the nephew was too.
Though it appears the nephew died from the gunshot wound, the cause of death will officially be determined by autopsy this week, Golmitz said.
Seyedin's wife said the nephew had a history of "chemical imbalance" but had been doing fine the past several months.
Kohan, the neighbor whose shot felled the knife-wielding man, was briefly detained on suspicion of murder but released following a review of the circumstances, the sheriff's office said.
Reached at his home Monday, Kohan declined to comment, saying "it's not a good time."
The development of two-story stucco homes just south of the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area is accessible only through two metal gates, which require a code to open. Some area homes are offered for sale at more than $900,000.
Dave Wiefels, who lives on Aria Court, said he came home at 4 p.m. to find his street roped off.
"The bodies were right there in the street," he said.
Wiefels said he didn't know the Seyedins but still found the experience traumatic.
Especially troubling to him was that a bullet fired during the altercation lodged in the chassis of a neighbor's truck, he said.
"A kid could have gotten hit," he said.
Lynn Putman, a Realtor, said she arrived home from showing a house to find bodies in the street and a sobbing woman rocking back and forth in a neighboring yard.
She was worried, she said. When she and her husband, Steve, moved into the development about six months ago, safety was a "No. 1 concern." "When you come to a gated community, it's what you expect," she said.
"It's disturbing," said Steve Putman, "but everyone eventually took it in stride. It's not because we're a bad area."
Mark Stromberg lives a few houses from the corner where the mayhem took place. He said he was inside and didn't know what had happened until a sheriff's deputy knocked on his door.
Stromberg said he stepped out of his house and "saw the kind of thing you see on the 6 o'clock news, not something you see 150 feet from your door."
Stromberg said he's thanking God the incident didn't happen a half-hour earlier when he was out in the yard.
Instead of Kohan shooting the assailant, "it could have been me with my rifle," he said.
