Witness haunted by moments before deadly triple shooting

Police dispute first-hand account that officers were on scene just before gunfire

- CALVI LEON

For the past month, Shahrokh Biniaz has replayed in his mind the moments leading to the bloodshed inside his office building. The sound of the first gunshot. The victims pleading for their lives. The call to 911 and the final spree of bullets that left three people dead.

Biniaz said he’s haunted by how events unfolded that day.

“I think about it all the time,” he said. “The voices are still in my head.”

Biniaz was the only witness to the shocking events that left businessman Arash Missaghi, 54, and his associate, Samira Yousefi, 44, dead inside the lobby of their Toronto office.

An angry client, Alan Kats, 46, wrote a suicide note before confronting them and taking his own life. Biniaz worked in the back of the same office building. In an exclusive interview with the Star, the photographer and graphic designer revealed new details about the shooting — including making public for the first time his account that police were at the scene when the final gunshots rang out.

“As soon as the police came, that’s when he started shooting,” he said.

He said he’s questioned his own actions, and whether the outcome might have been different had police reacted another way.

“Would it change things?” he asked.

Toronto police, however, dispute Biniaz’s account of how things transpired, saying in a statement that reports from police involved that day show one officer was “approaching” the scene when they heard loud bangs and that no additional officers arrived before the final gunshots.

Since the shooting, much has been said about Kats’ motive — that he believed Missaghi and Yousefi had defrauded him and his family of their life savings in an alleged mortgage investment scheme.

Biniaz said he couldn’t understand why some people seemed to think Kats’ plight justified his actions, with a few going so far online as to call him a hero.