They fought side-by-side with him against the Taliban in the War on Terror, and now a heartbroken group of Green Berets is demanding justice for their Afghan “brother” and refugee whose killer remains free after gunning him down over a parking spot.
Abdul Rahman Waziri, a 31-year-old dad of two, was shot dead following an argument over parking at his Houston, Texas apartment complex last month after surviving years of disarming IEDs and fierce firefights against terrorists in Afghanistan before moving to the US with his family as refugees in 2021.
“Abdul Rahman was literally willing to lay down his life for us – for us, for Americans,” Green Beret Ben Hoffman told The Post. “He was a lion. He was a warrior. He was a hero.”
That’s why Hoffman said he and others in the military who served with Waziri, an alum of the elite Afghan National Mine Removal Group, are dismayed by how he was killed and outraged at the lack of justice in the wake of his senseless death.
The deadly fight over the parking spot ended when the shooter walked away, only to go to his car to get his gun, Waziri’s family lawyer, Omar Khawaja, said, citing witnesses.
Waziri put his hands up and uttered his last words: “Please, don’t shoot” before he was shot multiple times, according to the lawyer.
Security camera footage obtained by the Post shows the alleged killer strolling away from the shooting, holding a bag of McDonald’s.
Houston police have not made any arrests in the killing after the Harris County District Attorney declined to charge the shooter, who had called 911 and reportedly confessed.
Cops said Monday that the investigation is ongoing while the gunman remains free and is back living in the apartment complex.
“We are hopeful that the right decision is made here,” Khawaja said about the possibility of charges being brought in the incident.
The suspect, who was not identified by officials, called police and turned himself in. He was questioned and then let go — outraging family and the members of the small but growing Afghan community in Houston, many of them soldiers like Waziri who fought with US special forces.
“To see a guy like that, a lion of a man, a man among men, to go to Houston of all places and get gunned down for no reason, it infuriates me,” Hoffman said. “If he were going to get gunned down in Logar Province, it may have been different. You want to kill one of our dudes? It would be a hunt-kill mission until we found the guy who did it.”
As angry as he is, Hoffman said he would never consider taking revenge.
“It’s not what Abdul Rahman would want,” he said. “He was a peacemaker. He was a warrior, but he wanted to bring peace,” he added.
Another member of the Army who fought side by side with Waziri agreed.
“They were us. Without them, we were nothing,” said Jay, a combat engineer who worked closely with Waziri and other Afghan nationals. “They were one of us. They were our brothers.”
Jay, who declined to use his name out of safety concerns, said he can’t wrap his head around the irony that Waziri fled the notoriously brutal Taliban in his home country only to get gunned down in the streets of Houston — where his death wasn’t given a second thought.
“It doesn’t make any sense. This guy needs justice, I don’t know how else to say it. It needs to be told to the f–king world, it’s really bad. If I went back to Afghanistan tomorrow, I would take Mr. Waziri with me, man.”
Abdullah Khan, Waziri’s biological brother, was also a member of the mine removal team.
“We were doing serious missions, we went to some spicy places with Americans, we were fighting the Taliban, but ISIS too,” he said.
He said in the chaos of the US withdrawal from Kabul in August 2021, Waziri had to leave his wife and newborn baby behind. His flight to the US took off just two hours before a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Kabul airport.
Waziri’s wife and baby later joined him in Texas, where the couple had a second daughter less than a year ago.
“He made it safely onto the airflight,” Khan said. “He was lucky until this moment in the parking lot.”
The day after his brother’s slaying, Khan said he was cleaning up Waziri’s blood in the parking lot when the alleged killer, who lives in the same apartment complex, strolled by and glared at him.
“I was like ‘Oh my God’, he was looking at me like he didn’t like me. I was the one talking to the news. Cleaning up my brother’s blood.”
“We have in my country some of the worst laws in the world. But if something like this happened, you know the person will not walk in front of you,” Khan said. “Even in Afghanistan, that wouldn’t happen.”
Waziri’s wife, now a widow, is too scared to stay in Houston with the couple’s two young daughters, 9-month-old Zoya and her 4-year-old sister, Bahar. The mom and girls are currently staying with Khan in Florida.
Waziri’s heroism was not limited to the battlefield. In the lead-up to the chaotic withdrawal of troops in the summer of 2021, Waziri was essential in helping Afghans who were allies to the US military to get out of the country by creating a safe house and safeguarding valuable intelligence.
“It was a s–t show, it was absolute madness,” said a member of the Army who declined to use his name for his safety. “But Mr. Waziri worked to keep people safe.”
“The Taliban were already spying on people. Rolling through the streets with guns. The executioner’s noose was coming,” said Shireen Connor, a member of Waziri’s Afghan Evacuation Team. “And Mr. Waziri held fast in making sure he was still helping other people, one thousand percent at the risk of his own life,”
“To know that somebody like that died in a parking lot with no justice served is a crime in and of itself,” Connor added.
“They wanted better for themselves and their country. They appreciate what the American servicemen were doing over there. They were brothers. That sense of democracy, that spirit – for Mr. Waziri to come here and get no due process, it’s unconscionable,” Connor said.
Former Green Beret and US Army contractor Vince Leyva was so impressed with Waziri’s work that he brought him on as a trainer at Camp Dahlkie. Leyva would try to satisfy Waziri’s endless curiosity about the US. He even organized a party for Waziri when he got engaged.
Leyva wrote letters of support for Waziri to come to the US and was thrilled when he finally made it and was living his life with his wife and two daughters in Texas.
“You fight to save American lives in a country like Afghanistan. You could have lost your leg, you could have lost your hand, your eye, your life. You do all that for America and survive getting shot by bullets and bombs,” he said. “Then you’re killed in a parking lot. He deserved a different ending to his story.”
Leyva wrote a letter — one of dozens — seeking justice for Waziri that will be delivered to the Houston mayor and the Harris County District Attorney.
Leyva’s letter ends with a plea to city officials.
“Please look into this man’s tragic killing so that his family can get justice for his father, brother, and husband who deserved to live in peace in a country he so courageously supported during our forever war in Afghanistan.”
The Houston mayor’s office, the Houston police department and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately return requests for comment.
