Two dead after altercation in El Dorado Hills

Editor's note: A story in the print edition of the Telgraph on Wednesday, Jan. 9, "Homicides in the hills: Two dead after altercation," said it was El Dorado Hills resident Shahin Kohan whom a neighbor on Venezia Drive understood to have responded carrying a shotgun to a local disturbance on a day previous to the homicide on the street Sunday, Jan. 6. In fact, the neighbor was referring not to Kohan but to another neighborhood resident as having responded carrying a shotgun to the past disturbance.Moments after killing his uncle with a knife on an El Dorado Hills street Sunday, an Orange County man was shot dead by a neighbor who heard calls for help.The fatal violence began around 2:20 p.m. and reportedly stemmed from a holiday reunion at a home in the 1000 block of Venezia Drive in the Promontory neighborhood. An apparently depressed man told members of his family he was going to commit suicide, then took up a kitchen knife and threatened to kill them when they intervened, said Sgt. Bryan Golmitz of the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office. Frightened, the group fled the house and into the street. On the street, the knife-wielding man reportedly pursued and stabbed his uncle, Ahmad Pazeky, killing him, Golmitz said. Pazeky was 58. The attacker was identified as Behnam Pazoki, 33, of Tustin. His uncle, Pazeky, was from Trabuco Canyon, also in Orange County."We have an emotionally depressed person," Golmitz said. "We don't know his motive."Also during the melee, Pazeky's nephew reportedly stabbed the homeowner - another relative, Seyedin Vahid, 47 - as Vahid tried to stop the stabbing of Pazeky. As the upscale neighborhood echoed with calls for help, an armed neighbor, Shahin Kohan, 49, fired a gun twice, apparently trying to warn the assailant off his victim, Golmitz said. Then, Kohan shot the man once, Golmitz said. The assailant died on the scene, on Venezia at Aria Court.Deputies arrested Kohan on suspicion of first-degree murder, but he was soon released with no charges filed, Golmitz said."The District Attorney spoke to investigators," Golmitz said. "He agreed this is a justified act - (Kohan) responded to calls for help, and then he shot the aggressor."Another neighbor, Steve Putman, called the double-homicide episode "pretty eerie" and a blow to all on the block."A strange occurrence for the neighborhood," he said."It was definitely pretty weird to see two dead people lying there, especially on this road," said Taylor Knoll, who also lives in the neighborhood.The Promontory neighborhood is gated, with many houses commanding a selling price of $600,000 or more.Despite the comparatively wealthy character of the neighborhood, it is still in one important way a rural one, Byers said.Byers said armed response by a neighbor to a distress call in the foothills area, even one leading to a fatality, is not all that unusual. "It's kind of a regional question," Byers said. "In El Dorado, Placer, any rural county, you're more prone to have neighbors who are armed. You'll probably see a higher response of people putting themselves in danger. That's probably not the case in a city, where police response time is a matter of seconds, whereas in rural areas it's measured in minutes." Family members regarded the assailant's depression as chronic, according to published reports. Vahid was treated for wounds at Folsom Mercy Hospital and released. Homicide rates annually throughout El Dorado County are comparatively low, Golmitz said.Autopsies to the bodies of the nephew and Pazeky will be done this week. The Telegraph's Roger Phelps can be reached at rogerp@goldcountrymedia.com, or post a comment at folsomtelegraph.com