MABELTON, Ga. (AP) – Camila Wright took a chance three years ago when she got on a plane to meet the man who would become the love of her life. This week he was cruelly taken from her, shot dead while working to provide for his wife and young daughter.
Shahriar Zolfaghari, 34, was shot in the upper torso and found dead inside his car at a stoplight in Atlanta around 1 a.m. Wednesday, police said. He had been working at night as a driver for ride-hiring service Lyft so he could care for his daughter during the day. Wright is a prosecutor who focuses on human trafficking cases for the Georgia attorney general’s office.
Zolfaghari’s credit cards and ID were still on him and his car wasn’t taken, and police have said they don’t know the motive behind the killing. They’ve subpoenaed ride-booking records from Lyft, which the company promptly turned over. Based on the location of two shell casings found at the scene, investigators believe the shooter may have been in the car at some point, police have said.
Wright and her husband began talking after a mutual friend put them in touch. A frequent traveler who had previously lived abroad, Wright had wanted to visit Istanbul, where Zolfaghari lived. After they’d been talking for five or six months, she booked a ticket, excited to have a travel buddy but not expecting anything more until he met her at the airport.
“The moment I saw him walking towards me holding a bunch of flowers, I said, ‘Oh damn.’ I knew it was something special,” she told reporters outside her home in Mabelton on Friday as her brother and parents hovered nearby. “We married nine months later and we’ve had three perfect years.”