Charges in Houston Afghan killing still unfiled
Abdul Rahman Waziri was well known the US Special Forces in Afghanistan – he worked in the Mine Reduction Group protecting our guys from hidden explosives. He emigrated to the US and settled in Houston, TX, where he was gunned down in an apparent parking dispute on April 27th.
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.
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.
That last sentence should be the key – the man had the ability to drive away, but instead went for a weapon, came back to Waziri’s car, and killed him. No Stand Your Ground or self-defense should apply in that case, right? But, the police haven’t even bothered to arrest him, despite saying the investigation is closed, and the Houston DA only says “it will go to a grand jury”.
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.
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.Military Times
The Houston DA is Sean Teare, another Soros purchase. Soros has done very well in Houston, having purchased aided both DAs in office since 2017. Teare defeated incumbent Kim Ogg last year by over 50 points amid allegations of personal feuds and poor performance. His office is already undergoing an audit for over 300 charging discrepancies uncovered by an intern (who somehow lost his job – ain’t it funny.) Boy, Soros can pick ’em. Meanwhile, Waziri’s killer is running around loose.
Tip o’ the Hatlo Hat to Jeff LPH
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work"
Soros-bought DAs
(D)emon-rat cesspool
Houston…
Nuke the site from orbit…it’s the only way to be sure.
Any pictures of the shooter?
Does the shooter belong to one of the protected classes?
Sounds like one good turn (shooting Waziri) deserves another (finding and shooting Waziri’s killer).
If those law enforcement agents that we, the people, have ceded a certain portion of our rights to, do not and will not give us justice, those rights return to the people who can then make their own justice.
Not all cases result in an arrest. It doesn’t mean that the shooter won’t be prosecuted or convicted but it does mean that the investigator believed that it wasn’t necessary for whatever reason. It also doesn’t mean he is right. When I was a junior officer I worked a really frustrating case where a man had shot and killed his wife. He then convinced his six year old son to lie about what happened before he called the police. When I arrived as first officer in the scene I mirandized him, detained him and transported him to the station for questioning while forensics worked the scene. To me it was pretty evident that he was lying about what had happened. I didn’t ask him a single question. For three hours he sat there talking about what had happened and asked me a number of questions about the law trying to figure out the best way to present his case. He literally changed his story ten times. He didn’t realize that my body camera was rolling the whole time recording everything he said. He settled on a story and stuck with it. When the interviewer showed up I explained what happened and I told him needed to look at the video. He didn’t and a couple of hours later they just let him go and said they would send it to the grand jury as a negligent homicide. I was really upset about it and kept bothering the lead investigator to look at the footage, which he never did. Finally out of frustration I did an end run and sat down with the head DA investigator and literally begged him to look at it, which he did. Within a couple of days the charges were upped by the DA to murder. The killer ended up being convicted of manslaughter because of a peculiarity of our state code and he got 20 years, probably less than he deserved, but much more than he would have gotten. The video was the star “witness”. His defense attorney later said he had talked himself right… Read more »
Anyway, my point is the police get overwhelmed and often treat cases as an Occam’s Razor situation. All that CSI and Law and Order BS that happens on TV is rare and sometimes someone really has to advocate for the victim or it may not get the attention it deserves.
No surprise here