JUSTICE DELAYED

Gunman Charged Months After Admitting to Murdering Afghan Refugee

The lack of urgency in the gunman’s arrest has elicited outrage in Houston and among the Green Berets.

Katia Bougere, 31, has been charged with murder months after he confessed to killing Abdul Rahman Waziri, also 31, a refugee who assisted the United States Army Special Forces in Afghanistan for five years. Bougere admitted the murder to Houston police at the scene of the crime on April 27, saying he acted in self-defense while the two were “arguing over parking.” Surveillance footage shows Bougere walking away from the scene. The police had confiscated his gun but let Bougere go, waiting three months to send a summons for a court appearance for next week. The unexplained delay and failure to arrest Bougere incited protests in Texas and petitions by the Green Berets demanding justice. Waziri had been living in the U.S. since 2021 with his wife and two young daughters before he was riddled with bullets just outside his apartment, Houston police told NBC. “It is outrageous that the man accused of taking his life is being allowed to appear by summons—not arrested, not handcuffed, not treated like the violent offender he is alleged to be,” Omar Khawaja, the Waziri family attorney, wrote in a statement to NBC News. Bougere has not released a statement.