A man who shot someone in Clarendon and fled the country, and then escaped again while awaiting extradition, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Taha Zouheir was sentenced Friday in Arlington Circuit Court to 17 years of incarceration followed by three years of probation, according to the Arlington County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
The shooting happened around 2 a.m. on June 4, 2023, in a parking lot on the 3000 block of Wilson Blvd. Earlier that night, Zouheir and the victim had argued outside a Clarendon bar.
Prosecutors said that about 20 minutes after that argument ended, Zouheir walked up to the victim and his friends in the parking lot. He was wearing a motorcycle helmet and a motorcycle club vest and carrying a handgun. Witnesses said he brought up the earlier dispute before opening fire. He kept shooting as the victim tried to run away, while “numerous bystanders were present in the area,” according to the office.
The victim was hit in the arm, torso and lower body. One bullet severed his brachial artery, which caused severe blood loss and meant he needed a blood transfusion. Prosecutors said he still has nerve damage from the shooting more than three years later.
Witness statements, surveillance footage and cell phone location data connected Zouheir to both the argument and the shooting. Police said at the time that the shooter fled on a motorcycle.
Within 24 hours, Zouheir had traveled to Florida and boarded a flight bound for Morocco, prosecutors said. While he was in the air, the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office filed an Interpol Red Notice. That notice let authorities arrest him in Lisbon, Portugal, before he reached Morocco.
Zouheir then fled Portugal during the extradition process. He was later caught in Spain and extradited to the United States last summer. He was taken into custody when he arrived at Dulles International Airport, as ARLnow reported at the time.
Under the extradition agreement with Portugal, prosecutors could not charge him with any offense that carries a possible life sentence. Police said last year that he was charged with attempted first-degree murder, malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
“This case reflects the devastating and lasting consequences of gun violence,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti said. “Our office is grateful to the investigators, prosecutors, and international partners whose persistence ensured that the defendant was brought back to Arlington to be held accountable. Most importantly, our thoughts remain with the victim, whose life was permanently changed by this shooting.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys Isia Jasiewicz and Carolyn Jackson prosecuted the case.
