A war hero was killed in a parking lot in Texas. Why wasn't the shooter arrested?

Abdul Rahman Waziri jeopardized more than five years to protect us green baskets. He was a member of an elite unit Afghan, which was trained to detect hidden explosives – as the tip of the spearhead in America's bloody fight against the Taliban.

Waziri was also one of the lucky ones. In contrast to many other Afghans who worked for the US military, he made it out of the country during the chaotic withdrawal in 2021. He settled with his wife in Houston, where she raised her two young girls.

But on April 27, the 31 -year -old Waziri was fatally shot in front of his apartment complex in a dispute over parking. The shock and heartache that his family feels was reinforced by an astonishing decision by the law enforcement authorities to release the shooters without charges.

“It's ridiculous,” said Waziri's brother Abdullah Khan. “We have no law in Afghanistan. But if someone is murdered, the person will not be free.”

The Houston police said in a statement that a man who identified himself as a shooter and said he and Waziri were “over parking”. The officers interviewed the man and took possession of his weapon, but then let him go.

“After advice with the district prosecutor's office in Harris, the man was released and [Houston Police Department] The investigators will continue their investigation, ”added the police. They have not published its name.

No measures were taken three weeks later. Despite the increasing pressure of the growing Afghan community in the region, the authorities have not made any further public statements.

“He was a lion of a man, but also one of the gentlest warriors I have ever seen,” said Ben Hoffman, a former green basket cap in 2019 with Waziri on missions.

“This guy risked his life for us,” added Hoffman. “And so that he survived all of this and made it from Afghanistan and then only dies in cold blood in front of an apartment complex in Houston – what's going on here?”

At that time Keith, a spokeswoman for the district prosecutor of Harris County, said: “We are still waiting for additional information from investigators before we make an indictment decision.”

The Houston police department did not answer a request for a comment.

What the surveillance video shows

The shootout took place shortly before 9:10 p.m. in the Gables in Richmond Apartments, where Waziri had lived since last year.

A surveillance camera conquered Waziri who drove to the parking lot in a white Toyota Camry. He pulled the car to stand and put on his indicators. According to his brother, he came home from the gym. Waziri would probably snap his mail and then park in a place that approached his apartment closer, said his brother.

But about 30 seconds after Waziri's car had entered, a black Kia sedan turned into the parking lot. According to the surveillance material provided by the family, it was stopped directly behind Waziri's vehicle.

What happened next is not entirely clear. The area in which the cars were stopped cannot be seen on the video because a structure protrudes above the parking lot.

But Waziri can be seen how he goes away from his car and the other man stayed behind him. They stop and exchange words while pointing towards their vehicles. Then Waziri walks away and the other man returns where her cars were parked.

Seconds later, Waziri looks back in this direction and then goes back to his car. It is unclear what will happen in the next 55 seconds. But towards the end, the other man's shoes can move towards his car and then back towards Waziris.

Shortly afterwards the other man was captured on the video Away from the scene.

“It shocked me that this man was not arrested,” said the Waziri family's lawyer, Omar Khawaja.

Khawaja said he spoke to a witness and accompanied this person to the police headquarters five days after the shootout. According to Khawaja, the witness gave the investigators the following report.

After the first confrontation, which was recorded on video, the other man of Waziri began to kick. This prompted Waziri to return to the vehicles. There was a physical struggle, with Waziri getting the upper hand, and then the other man returned to his car and got a gun.

Waziri put his hands up and said something in the direction: “Don't shoot”, but the shooter nevertheless opened the fire.

The efforts of the NBC News to achieve the witness were not successful.

The police said Waziri was “more than once” shot and the officials discovered that his body was lying next to his white Toyota. Khajawa, the family's lawyer, said Waziri was unarmed at that time; He had a gun, but she was at home.

Khajawa said he was at least one other conscious Witnesses who are too afraid to report.

“You can imagine the kind of paralysis and fear that the community feels,” said Khawaja. “The guy who has just killed this man still lives in the community and without any consequences. This is a frightening effect on witnesses.”

What the law says

According to Texan law, a person has the right to apply fatal violence if you are probably “immediately necessary” to protect another from the “use or attempted use of illegal violence”.

David Crump, professor at the Law Center of the University of Houston, said another factor serves to decide a public prosecutor whether she should file charges: did the person initiate the dispute?

“When someone initiates a dispute and shoots a man who was unarmed, it seems strange to me that the shooter was not arrested,” said Crump. “But I have to add that we don't know all the facts.”

The killing triggered protests in Houston in which thousands of Afghans have settled from their homeland after fleeing. It also prompted some of Waziri's Greens Basque Friends, letters to the Mayor of Houston, John Whitmore, and demanded justice.

One of these retired green baskets, Vince Leyva, said in an interview that he described Waziri as “gentle giant”.

“I'm 6-foot-1 and he ended me over,” said Leyva. “But he was so calm, so well spoken. He was not a guy who would argue, which is why it really confuses me.”

Waziri and the other Afghan members of the National Mine reduction group (NMRG) would be in front of us during the missions. Their task was to identify and deactivate improvised explosive devices, but they were sometimes in fire prisons in Taliban behind.

They were often hunted by insurgents about the risk of being killed at work.

“Everyone knew who the NMRG was, especially the Taliban,” said Leyva, who helped the expansion of the Afghans. “They always had goals on their backs, but they were proud to do their work.”

Waziri was so good at the fact that he was selected as an instructor, Leyva said a role he had until the US forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Waziri also searched for others in his homeland in his home country when the Taliban quickly confiscated the big cities, according to Shireen Connor, the part of a basist team of veterans and others who helped to coordinate the evacuations of Afghans.

“The streets of Kabul were panicked,” said Connor in a letter to the Mayor of Houston.

“In the middle of this, Mr. Waziri, a top-class Taliban goal, did not set up safe houses for themselves, but for our evacuated.

After the shootout, Waziri's wife and two young daughters-die 4-year-old Bahar and her 9-month-old little sister Zoya after Florida flew to stay with his brother.

“His wife is now in very bad condition,” said Khan, the brother. “She still panic.”

Khan and Waziri's wife said Bahar that their father is dead. And so the little girl asks her mother and uncle almost every day a number of heartbreaking questions.

Where is my father? When does he come home? Please just call it?