Suspect in barbershop slaying told detectives he believed victim cheated him out of $100K, was ‘the devil’
It was revealed at a competency hearing last month that Kanouna has suffered from several mental issues, including schizophrenia and anxiety and depressive disorders, for which he took medication.
David Kanouna told a detective he wanted to kill Sharaz Hussain for a long time because Hussain scammed him out of “$100,000 credit.”
Kanouna made good on that desire June 13, 2020.
Kanouna was driving a silver Toyota Highlander on Mound Road in Sterling Heights about 9 p.m. when he noticed Hussain’s Cadillac Escalade in the parking lot of The Barber Co. Kanouna parked in the shop’s lot, entered the facility and shot Hussain multiple times in the presence of the shop owner and a third man, according to testimony at Kanouna’s preliminary examination Friday in 41A District Court in Sterling Heights.
Kanouna, 32, of Sterling Heights, was bound over to Macomb County Circuit Court on charges of first-degree, premeditated murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony by Judge Annemarie Lepore, following testimony.
Kanouna faces a Feb. 2 arraignment in front of Macomb Circuit Judge Edward Servitto.
The barber shop’s owner, Steven Shallal, who was a friend of Hussain, recalled in testimony that about 1-½ to two years earlier, Kanouna had come into his shop looking for Hussain, and said he wanted to kill him.
Hours after the shooting, Kanouna told Sterling Heights police Detective Natalie Abrams said he killed Hussain because he was the “devil” and a “demon.”
No other details of the alleged scam were provided, but two weeks after the incident a police official told The Macomb Daily that investigators believe the slaying stemmed from a business transaction a few years before.
“I’m not going to get into the logistics of that business deal between them. Since that business dealing, the relationship went south, and they had been in a feud since then,” Lt. Mario Bastianelli said in June 2020, adding one report of threats had been filed with police.
Hussain, 30, died from at least six gunshots to his head, neck and “trunk” said Macomb County Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Mary Pietrangelo in an autopsy report.
On the day of the slaying, Hussain contacted Shallal at about 8 p.m. to meet at the shop so Hussain could purchase “face scrub” because “he had a date,” Shallal said on the witness stand.
Shallal said the shop, located in the Fox Hill Plaza shopping center north of Metropolitan Parkway, was closed, but he opened it for Hussain. He arrived and met Hussain and Hussain’s friend, “Tommy,” also a childhood classmate of Shallal, and they went into the shop’s “waxing room” for Hussain to try the product.
As the three men talked and joked in the 6-by-9 foot room for 10 to 15 minutes, Kanouna entered the shop and appeared to be “looking for something.”
“I told him to come back Monday when the store is open,” he said.
Kanouna started “going crazy” … “swearing” and advanced to just outside the doorway of the waxing room, he said.
“I was confused why he was there,” he said. “Was he there for me?”
“Tommy was in shock, too.”
Shallal said he and Hussain had exited the room but Hussain, followed by Shallal, retreated back into it, while Tommy fled.
“I wondered why Sharaz backed himself into a corner,” he said.
Shallal said he wasn’t looking at Kanouna and did not recall seeing Kanouna with a gun. The next thing he saw was Hussain falling to the ground, holding up one of his arms in a defensive position and looking up at Shallal for help, he said. Shallal testified he didn’t hear any gunshots but noticed a couple of holes in Hussain’s shirt.
“I’m not saying gunshots didn’t go off,” he said. “I just didn’t hear them.
“It was weird,” he said, attributing it to his “adrenalin pumping” and saying his “brain froze.”
He recalled holding up his arms to protect himself from bullets and flying shelling casings.
“I seen bullets flying in slow motion. Shells were going all over,” he testified.
Shallal said Hussain was hit with more bullets, and Shalla fled out of the room and the shop to a nearby restaurant. While he was calling 911, he heard gunshots that he thought perhaps Hussain was firing from his own gun that he carried.
“I thought somehow he (Hussain) got a hold of his gun” and was shooting Kanouna, he said. “I didn’t see the need for extra shots.”
Kanouna told Abrams the extra shots were “f— you shots,” and he wanted to make sure Hussain was dead, Abrams said.
Police found $8,300 in cash in Hussain’s pocket, testimony revealed.
Shallal said when Hussain first arrived, he mysteriously got “an uneasy feeling” when Hussain put his handgun that he “always” possessed on a chair outside the waxing room. The gun, which was covered by a towel, was too far away for Hussain to grab when Kanouna entered, he recalled.
“I had a bad feeling” before Kanouna arrived, Shallal said. “I told him to put it away.”
Police arrested Kanouna a short time after the shooting.
The Glock 19 used in the shooting was recovered from his home, where he resided with his parents.
The shooting was captured on video but it was not shown at the hearing.
Kanouna’s attorney, Kevin Schneider, after the hearing repeated his plan to seek a verdict or plea of not guilty by reason of insanity for his client.
It was revealed at a competency hearing last month that Kanouna has suffered from several mental issues, including schizophrenia and anxiety and depressive disorders, for which he took medication.
Schneider during the hearing questioned Abrams, who interviewed Kanouna at the Sterling Heights police station the night of the shooting.
Abrams testified she did not notice anything unusual about Kanouna other than him telling her he has been diagnosed as bipolar and schizophrenic, for which he took medications but didn’t believe they helped him.
Kanouna remains held at the county jail without bond.