Following a tragic altercation last week, a South Vancouver nightclub was pushed into the limelight.
The club’s proceedings were winding down at about 3 a.m. According to Paymon Zanjani, the club’s head of security, at that time, a few groups began becoming extremely loud and confrontational.
Zanjani told The Daily Hive that the club employees sought to de-escalate the situation. They encouraged the groups to calm and settle down. The parties engaged seemed to be a mix of those who had just left the club and those who had been refused admittance earlier in the evening.
One group was bigger and overpowered the other. Therefore, a member of the smaller group drew a knife in the middle of the fight. The knife was later discovered in the hands of the suspect.
The 24-year-old suspect was accused of stabbing a 19-year-old victim with whom he was fighting. After being brought to the hospital, the victim died of his injuries later that night.
The suspect left the scene on foot as the club personnel contacted the cops and an ambulance. Navid Zanganeh, a member of the club’s security staff and “world champion wrestler and MMA fighter,” followed the suspect. According to Zanjani, he immobilized the suspect until law authorities came.
Zanganeh didn’t act out of compulsion. He just wanted to do the right thing and prevent a guy with a weapon from fleeing and endangering others.
The suspect is still being held, and the event is currently being investigated by the Vancouver Police Department.
Zanganeh is a 25-year-old Iranian native. He has won the international stage three times with his U-23 freestyle wrestling squad.
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Zanganeh came to Canada after being detained in Iran for participating in an anti-government demonstration. This cost him his spot on the national wrestling team.
Zanganeh was expected to make his MMA debut in October 2021 for the Battlefield Event League, located in Canada. However, the fight never took place for unclear reasons.