Police process the shooting scene for evidence after Reza Rahiman fired two bullets into another vehicle, after a road rage-fuelled incident along the Nanaimo Parkway. (File photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

road rage

Man jailed for road rage-fuelled shooting in Nanaimo

Jul 15, 2025 | 10:43 AM

NANAIMO — A local man will spend the next five years behind bars after a road rage-linked shooting incident two years ago.

Reza Rahiman, 46, was sentenced on Tuesday, July 15, to five years and six months in jail after pleading guilty earlier this month to a charge of intent to endanger life following a Feb. 5, 2023 altercation, which culminated with Rahiman firing a gun toward another driver on Northfield Rd.

BC Supreme Court Justice Robin Baird said Rahiman put the victim and numerous witnesses to the incident in danger all because he was unable to control his road rage.

“There is nothing to explain it, other than his inability to control his temper, govern his violent impulses, and conduct himself within the boundaries of civilized behaviour. An important goal of the sentence I have imposed today is to set him straight for good.”

Reza Rahiman leaves BC Supreme Court in Nanaimo on July 8, 2025, during a break in proceedings, after pleading guilty to a trio of charges linked to a February 2023 shooting on Northfield Rd. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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He also pleaded guilty to a pair of firearms-related offences.

Rahiman was originally charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm with intent to injure or wound shortly after his arrest in the hours following the incident.

It involved a then-18-year-old victim, who was seen driving erratically at times on the Nanaimo Parkway around 12:30 p.m.

Rahiman then passed the victim and another vehicle on the right-hand shoulder, which caused the 18-year-old driver to flip his middle finger at Rahiman.

Both vehicles turned off at the Northfield Rd. exit, eventually stopping at the traffic lights on Boxwood Rd. next to each other, when the situation turned violent.

Court heard Rahiman got out of his car, and was seen punching and kicking the victim’s vehicle. He then drew a nine millimetre handgun after the victim reversed toward him, and fired twice.

Both shots hit the victim’s vehicle, but no injuries were reported, with multiple witnesses on hand.

One bullet was later found lodged inside a tire and wheel, which was strapped into the passenger seat of the victim’s car.

Witness photos showed Rahiman putting the handgun back under his clothes as he went back to his vehicle and fled the scene.

Three minutes after fleeing the scene, Rahiman phoned 9-1-1 to falsely report his vehicle license plates had been stolen.

A photo from February 2023, showing the aftermath of the incident where Rahiman fired two shots into the victims vehicle. (File photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Police tracked Rahiman’s Jeep to the Cedar area less than an hour later, where two assault rifles and a loaded semi-automatic nine millimetre Glock 48 handgun were found inside, with the handgun on the passenger seat wrapped in plastic within reach of the driver.

Ammo for the handgun was also found, with the 10-round magazine loaded into the handgun only containing eight bullets, which was later confirmed as the firearm used in the incident.

A subsequent search warrant was executed on the Ladysmith home he shares with his parents, where investigators found 300 rounds of ammunition for the assault rifles, one round of nine millimetre ammo, and ballistic body armour, located in a locked safe hidden behind a hinged mirror in the master bedroom.

All of the items were registered to his 75-year-old father, with Rahiman being denied a firearms license in the past.

Justice Baird said Rahiman enjoyed a positive upbringing with “loving and generous parents” and has no history of addiction or mental health issues.

Born in Fiji, Rahiman emigrated to Canada when he was nine months old, living on the Mainland until he moved to Vancouver Island in 2019.

Numerous letters speaking on Rahiman’s good character were submitted in support, mostly from family members and a former employer.

While they described him as a “caring, compassionate, and a hard-working” family man, with this incident being out of character for him, Justice Baird said he could expect at the age of 46, Rahiman has continued his pattern of “counter-productive and anti-social misconduct.”

“With all due respect to the letter writers who continue to admire and support him, Mr. Rahiman, whatever his positive attributes, is not a person of exemplary character, but a recidivist criminal offender, who is before the court on a near annual basis between the ages of 22 and 38, answering to the charges that show a persistent inability to properly regulate his behaviours, and petulant disregard for the law.”

He has a criminal history dating back to 2001 across Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland and the Interior.

Previous charges include assault of a peace officer, mischief under $5,000 and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. He also has several breaches of court orders and other ticketed driving offences.

Justice Baird said the conditional sentence orders Rahiman has been issued for the past offences are clearly not working to curb his behaviour, with only five years between this incident and the last time he was arrested.

“It does nothing to alter the fact that Mr. Rahiman has a reasonably lengthy history of criminal, anti-social conduct, and multiple convictions for disobeying court orders, and of course, the period in which he did not come into conflict with law enforcement ended with the extremely violent and provocative incident presently before the court.”

Nanaimo RCMP compiling evidence on the day of the shooting in February, 2023. (File photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Crown counsel Nick Barber requested a seven-year prison sentence, while the defence asked for a two-year non-custodial sentence and three years’ probation.

“Mr. Rahiman was driving around with a loaded handgun in his pants and this is exactly why there needs to be a deterrent sentence,” Crown counsel Nick Barber said during sentencing arguments earlier in July. “When you carry a nine millimetre loaded gun around, you’re planning to use it and that’s what he did. That’s not only a danger not just to [the victim]…but anybody really.”

Upon release, Rahiman will be banned from owning any type of firearm or ammunition for the rest of his life, and will have to submit a DNA sample.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the jail sentence was nine and a half years.

– with files from Ian Holmes.

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