His name was Nasratullah Ahmadyar and he had lived on an US Army base from the time he was young, working an an interpreter. He and his family escaped the Taliban when the US pulled out of the country. He and his wife and five children were living in Alexandria and he worked as a Lyft driver in and around Washington DC. Monday he was shot and killed by a group of teens who were apparently trying to carjack him.

Matthew Butler, who was in the Army from 1990 through 2017 and did five tours in Afghanistan, said Ahmadyar started working at Bagram air base north of Kabul when he was 10 or 11, raking leaves and picking up stones. He learned English and became an interpreter, living on the base with the military, Butler said.

In 2020, Butler said, Ahmadyar reached out to him looking for a visa to come to the United States. Butler, 54, was living in Utah and working as a part-time government contractor. He said Ahmadyar, his wife and five children made the last plane out of Afghanistan. The Taliban had threatened anyone who had worked for or helped the Americans…

His death, Butler said, “is just a senseless tragedy. I want people to know this man did more for our country than most people in uniform. It was a life-and-death mission to get him to the U.S.”

The four assailants were caught on video running down an alley immediately after the gunshot. One of them said, “You just killed him.” The shooter responded, “He was reaching, bruh.” The first boy said, “He was about to get out.” “He was reaching, bruh,” the shooter replied. Here’s the video:

The Fraternal Order of Police posted this:

ONLY IN AMERICA: The lawlessness has claimed another innocent life. #NasratAhmadYar served as an interpreter alongside US special forces in Afghanistan. He escaped Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover and fled to America to start a new life, only to be gunned down while… pic.twitter.com/cn7cwYIWtO

— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) July 7, 2023

He’s just one of ten people were murdered in the first five days of July.

A social studies teacher and wrestling coach from a family of educators in Kentucky who came to D.C. for a professional development conference. A Montgomery County Community College student on summer break.

They are among the 10 people fatally shot in D.C. in the first five days of July, a spasm of violence that pushed 2023’s homicide count to 127 as the city edged closer to what might be the highest yearly total in two decades.

DC has a crime-at-a-glance webpage which lists current crime rates compared to the same time last year. As of today, it looks like this:

As you can see, violent crime is up 30% and property crime is up 29%. Arson is up 300% but the numbers involved are in the single digits. However, Motor Vehicle Theft is up 115% and as you can see we’re talking about thousands of incidents.

DC categorizes carjacking as a form of robbery, i.e. a violent crime. As you can see, robbery is up 49% compared to last year. So those four teens seen running through the alley after shooting Nasratullah Ahmadyar were probably carjacking him so they go for a joyride in his car, all while filming it on their phones. Just last month, Beege pointed out the Washington Post ran a story featuring police tips on how to avoid getting carjacked.

In May the Post ran a story about the number of crimes involving very young assailants. There was a string of 9 robberies and carjackings carried out this spring by a 12-year-old:

The carjackings, robberies and assaults occurred between March 21 and April 29 and were concentrated in the Anacostia area, police said. Most incidents were after school hours, largely between 5 p.m. and midnight, though one robbery occurred just before 2:15 p.m. on a Tuesday. Police reports show that the 12-year-old acted alongside at least one other person in every incident.

In most of the carjackings, the suspects wielded guns, though no shots were fired, and in some cases it was unclear whether the 12-year-old or another person held the weapon. The judge noted the youth, who appeared in court with his mother sitting behind him, had not previously been arrested.

In one incident in March outside of Martha’s Table in Southeast, the youth forced a woman from her car and pushed her to the ground in an attempt to take her purse and keys, according to a police report. A few weeks later, police said in a report that the youth, wearing a full face covering, brandished a handgun, demanded a victim’s keys and phone, and drove off in his red Toyota Highlander.

I’d be willing to bet that these incidents are part of the same Kia Boys fad that I wrote about here and here. This started on TikTok during the pandemic and it went viral. Now you have rates of car thefts and carjacking up in cities around the country. Several cities are suing some car manufacturers for making it too easy to break into their cars. In this particular case, the group decided to carjack someone rather than steal a parked car and the result is a father and husband who served this country and survived the Taliban dead for no reason.