Shahram Khastar, 29, was born in Iran and evidently owned his own taxi. On September 23, 1983, Le Devoir published several notices announcing the transfer of taxi licenses from the Taxi Maisonneuve cab company to various individuals, one of whom was Mr. Khastar. Less than a year later, on Friday, September 6, 1984, at about 1:30 in the morning, a fight broke out at the corner of Mackay and Sainte-Catharine streets. Mr. Khastar pulled over to watch and then got out of his taxi. "Four or five men were fighting on the street and the taxi driver stopped his car to intervene," said a downtown bar owner who witnessed the fight. "There was a lot of shoving and pushing, then suddenly everyone scattered, running in every direction. "I noticed that the taxi driver had a red blotch on his white shirt, right over his heart. "He staggered about 50 feet, then collapsed beside his taxi." Two young men who were involved in the fight were also stabbed. Anthony Zambom was stabbed about ten times and sat on the curb repeating to himself "I've been stabbed... I've been stabbed." The second man stood nearby, clutching his bleeding arm but was only slightly hurt. The witness said that police arrived before he could get to a telephone and call them. Two men were arrested within minutes of the stabbings. Doctors revived Mr. Khastar in hospital but he died on the operating table. Mr. Zambom, taken to hospital in serious but stable condition, was released a week later. On September 20, 1984 a preliminary hearing found a 37-year-old man criminally responsible for all of the stabbings. The man was well known to police as a leading member of Montréal's notorious West End gang. In April of 1969 he was convicted of running a protection racket and trying to extort money from a local bar owner. Three months later, in July, he was wounded by a shotgun blast to the stomach but survived.

Corner of Ste. Catherine and Mackay, looking east. December, 1984 (Source: Woody's, Bishop Street and Other Great Montreal Moments posted by Fréderic Serre on Facebook, December 22, 2023.) This shooting, and another one that occurred at about the same time, were part of an ongoing gangland war that had claimed 40 lives in Montréal during the eleven months between April, 1968 and March, 1969. Supporters of the killer and of Mr. Khastar packed the courtroom during the preliminary hearing and nearly came to blows, causing the presiding judge to eject both groups. Mr. Zambom, an Iranian student, testified that on Saturday night he ran into a group of four or five thugs on McKay Street, one of whom punched him in the face, causing him to drop his keys. When he bent down to pick them up another thug kicked him in the head. Mr. Zambom fled the scene but soon returned with two friends, also Iranian students, at which point things turned ugly. Mr. Khastar may have recognized one or more of the Iranian students, causing him to intervene. Mr. Khastar was buried in Montréal's Mount Royal Cemetery. A notice in Le Devoir of December 28, 1987, announced the transfer of Mr. Khastar's taxi license to his brothers, Shahreh and Shahrzad (Mike) Khastar.