A man accused of second-degree murder after a fatal stabbing at a South Vancouver nightclub has made his first court appearance.
Mohammed Cortes Torres, 25, was arrested and charged on April 30 in the 2022 murder of Naseb Fazil, 19.
Fazil had been involved in a fight outside Marpole’s Gallery nightclub, near SW Marine Drive and Hudson Street, in the early hours of May 23, 2022.
Vancouver police officers found him alive but suffering stab wounds when they arrived. He later died in hospital from his injuries.
Fazil had graduated from Burnaby Central Secondary the previous year and was working in construction. On the night he was killed, he had given his father a present, a bottle of cologne, bought with one of his first paycheques.
Fazil and his siblings had been brought to Canada from war-torn Afghanistan nearly 11 years ago. His father, Nazi Fazil, told the Burnaby Now last spring that he's waiting for Canadian justice to show him that decision wasn't a tragic mistake.
"What I was want from the government of Canada? I didn’t want anything from them, only my child’s safety,” his father said. “That’s why I escape my country, that’s why I leave everything behind. Only I have to save my kids.”
Police said Cortes Torres was a Surrey resident at the time of the homicide, and police believe he was more recently staying on Vancouver Island.
Court databases show a Mohammed Cortes Torres has convictions for mischief under $5,000 and uttering threats.
The case returns to court on May 5.
- With files from Cornelia Naylor, Burnaby Now
