Gunshot Victim Dies; Nephew Now Linked to Three Shootings

A 67-year-old Woodbridge man who police say was shot was by a distant nephew has died after four days on life support, and investigators said Thursday that the nephew is wanted in the kidnapping and shooting of two men in Long Beach.

Police say Arash Hariri, 28, shot his uncle, Moshen Dehdashti, outside Dehdashti’s Willowbrook Street home Sunday morning after the uncle refused to lend him money.

Doctors removed Dehdashti from life support about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and he died three hours later. Family members gathered Thursday at the quiet home where the shooting occurred.

Hariri was arrested about five hours after his uncle was shot. Police say he burglarized a nearby Irvine house after the shooting.

Hariri--who will now face a murder charge in connection with Sunday’s shooting--was also wanted on a $1.2-million arrest warrant out of Long Beach, police said Thursday.

In that case, Hariri is accused of carjacking, kidnapping and shooting two men in an attempt to force them to take him to a woman he had been stalking for a year, police said.

Moshen Dehdashti

“Basically it was a situation where he had what I would call a fatal attraction for a female,” said Long Beach Police Investigator Norm Ludwig.

Hariri had met the woman through Victory Outreach, a Long Beach church that helps people rebuild their lives. Ludwig said Hariri and the woman never had a relationship, but Hariri harassed her so much that she moved in an effort to hide from him. The stalking was never reported to police, Ludwig said.

On Jan. 23, Hariri intercepted the woman’s boyfriend and another man as they left for work, Ludwig said. He took them to a motel near Pacific Coast Highway and Magnolia Street and held them at gunpoint for six hours, trying to get them to take him to the woman, police said.

Hariri allegedly shot both men as they tried to overpower him, Ludwig said. The boyfriend, who works for the church, was shot in the stomach, said another employee there. Both men recovered.

“I’m so glad,” the employee said upon hearing of Hariri’s arrest.

Police say Hariri fled in the boyfriend’s car after the shooting and eluded authorities until this week.

“I was having trouble getting a handle on him,” Ludwig said. “Everything I checked on him was bogus identification.”

Irvine Police Lt. Tom Hume said the Long Beach warrant did not show up on a computer run of Hariri’s name because police were running a misspelled version. Ludwig, the Long Beach investigator, learned that Hariri was in custody at the Orange County Jail after reading a newspaper account of the arrest, he said.

Hariri, described by police as a transient who immigrated to the United States illegally from Iran three years ago, apparently spent Saturday night in the Dehdashti family’s backyard and then allegedly confronted Dehdashti as the uncle prepared to leave for a morning bike ride.