Posted on July 10, 2023

Interpreter Who Served With US Forces in Afghanistan, Fled Taliban Takeover Is Shot Dead Driving Lyft in DC

Patrick Reilly, New York Post, July 6, 2023

A father of four who had served as an interpreter alongside US special forces in Afghanistan and escaped after the Taliban takeover was gunned down while working as a Lyft driver in Washington, DC, early Monday.

Nasrat Ahmad Yar, 31, decided to work a few extra hours for the rideshare service, despite his wife’s protests that night, telling her they needed money for the rent, a friend told WUSA9.

He was shot and killed in his car a short time later after they spoke.

Shortly after midnight on Monday, DC Metro police found Ahmad Yar with a single gunshot wound close to his car on 11th Street Northeast. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police told the station.

“We need justice for Nasrat,” his cousin Samim Amiri said.

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Ahmad Yar had been working 12-hour shifts for Lyft as the sole provider for his wife and four children, who range in age from 15 months to 13 years, after fleeing Afghanistan in August 2021, when the United States military evacuated and the Taliban seized power. {snip}

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Yar and his family had first settled in Philadelphia, but, after being robbed at gunpoint, moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where he thought he and his family would be safer, less than a year ago, his friend Jeramie Malone said.

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The shooting was captured on security camera footage, obtained by WUSA9.

In the clip, a single gunshot can be heard and then four young men are seen running down an alleyway.

“You killed him! He was about to get out,” one of them says. Another responds, “He was reaching, bro.”

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Original Article