The Green Berets he served with in Afghanistan knew him as a gentle giant with a ready grin. When they learned he’d been gunned down outside of his new home in Houston, Texas, they felt shock and disbelief. Now, two months after Abdul Rahman Waziri’s death, they’re still waiting for justice.
On June 17, the Houston Police Department announced that the case of Waziri’s April 27 killing, allegedly over a parking dispute, would be referred to a grand jury. But they have yet to make an arrest in the case, despite identifying the shooter at the scene and taking his statement.
Ben Hoffman, a retired master sergeant who met Waziri in Afghanistan, where he was part of the National Mine Reduction Group, a unit of contractors who protected Green Berets from hidden explosives, called Waziri “a striking figure and one of the kindest guys I’ve ever met.”
“It made me really mad that this guy, who fought for years to keep me and my buddies safe in the special operations community, to come to the United States and die in general was bad enough,” Hoffman told Military Times. “But then in the way that it seems like it happened, and the lack of reaction there seems to have been from the authorities, it absolutely blows my mind. Like, how does this happen? How is America less safe than Logar province, Afghanistan?”
Hoffman described Waziri as over six feet tall and a muscular 225 pounds, but said he wasn’t a brawler and didn’t throw his weight around. Rather, he said, Waziri was humble, and always focused on accomplishing his mission.
“I felt like … [Waziri] and I were basically cut from the same cloth, like we were built to fight, but hated fighting because we wanted peace so much,” Hoffman said.
Led by another Army veteran, Thomas Kasza, about two dozen former Green Berets who’d served with Afghans in the NMRG signed a letter to the Harris County District Attorney’s office in May, demanding justice and answers.
“Had Abdul Rahman worn an American flag on his shoulder, the public would never tolerate this breathtaking degree of opacity,” they wrote. “This is not a request for special treatment. This is a request for treatment commensurate with the service he rendered to our country.”
According to the Houston Police Department, the shooting took place about 9:15 p.m. Waziri, 31, was found lying next to a white Toyota Camry, having been shot multiple times, and pronounced dead at Ben Taub General Hospital. A 31-year-old man who lived at the same apartment complex approached police and identified himself as the shooter. Police took his statement and took custody of his gun, but released the man after consulting with the Harris County DA.
Reached for comment, a Houston Police Department official said the police investigation had concluded and referred all questions to the DA’s office. Damali Keith, a spokeswoman for the Harris County DA, said the case remains under investigation and said there’s no real timeline for a grand jury decision.
Surveillance video first reported by NBC News shows Waziri’s Camry pulling into a parking area and putting on its blinkers. A black Kia sedan then pulls in, and an altercation ensues, largely obscured by a parking structure. The end of the video shows the alleged shooter calmly walking away.
Omar Khawaja, a lawyer for Waziri’s family who uncovered the surveillance video, also found a witness who then lived at the same apartment complex and provided police with a fuller accounting of what happened. The witness, he said, described Waziri walking to a mailbox to check his mail, and then returning to his car, where a confrontation ensues. The alleged shooter kicked Waziri’s car, Khawaja said, and a physical altercation ensued. Then the man returned to his vehicle, according to the witness account, retrieved a gun, and returned to shoot Waziri with it.
“We were also told that Mr. Waziri essentially begged for his life,” Khawaja said. “He said, ‘Don’t shoot me.’”
Khawaja cited Texas’ laws protecting shootings allegedly in self-defense as a possible reason the killer was not arrested. But he also said the police decision to release the man, allowing him to roam free in the apartment complex, had a “major chilling effect” on witnesses.
Waziri’s wife and two young children, meanwhile, have moved to Tampa to be near family, said his brother, Abdullah Khan.
Khan, who helped U.S. troops as a translator in Afghanistan, said he came to the U.S. on a special immigration visa in 2020, a year before Waziri was able to leave Afghanistan amid the departure of American troops. Waziri, he said, had earned a commercial driver’s license to work as a truck driver and had established a home for his children, ages 4 and 9 months, and a community around fellow Afghan immigrants in Texas.
“We came here, and we were … feeling [more] safe here than Afghanistan — it’s always something every day,” he said. “We got out, and America was safe for us, but unfortunately, America is also not safe.”
Shireen Connor, a social worker who has helped to support resettlement of Afghan allies in the U.S. and been in close contact with Waziri’s family since the shooting, said she believes recent action in the case, including the decision to refer the case to a grand jury, was a direct result of the pressure applied by veterans and the news attention it had received. But still, she worries that the killer — who appears to still be free and who law enforcement has not confirmed even remains within their jurisdiction — will face no consequences in Waziri’s killing.
“I can’t even consider what’s happened to date a miscarriage of justice,” she said, “because no justice has been applied.”
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