A Lyft driver who worked as an interpreter in Afghanistan and fled the country amid the Taliban's takeover in 2021 is the latest murder victim in Washington, D.C.
Nasrat Ahmad Yar worked with U.S. forces for a decade in the war-torn country and immigrated after the Biden administration's disastrous 2021 withdrawal left the nation under the Taliban's control. He drove for Lyft to provide for his wife and four children and was working his shift Monday night when he was killed. Police responded to a call after midnight in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood and found Yar by his car with a gunshot wound. He later died in a D.C. hospital.
Police have not arrested suspects and are offering a reward of $25,000 for information leading to an arrest. Police released security footage of four people running from the scene. "You just killed him," one person is captured saying in the footage.
"He was reaching, bruh," another says in response.
Yar was one of 10 people killed in the first five days of the month in D.C. A social studies teacher in town for a development conference and a college student on summer break were also murdered while visiting the nation's capital.
Shootings and homicides surged in D.C. in past years: 2019 saw 135 fatal and 557 non-fatal shootings, which rose in 2022 to 174 and 710, respectively.
Even if a criminal is apprehended, charges are rare. Two-thirds of people arrested in D.C. never receive criminal charges, according to data from the U.S. attorney's office.
Yar's death is the latest instance of rising crime in cities run by Democrat politicians. Residents of Portland are fleeing the city over its rampant crime. Two other major Democratic cities suffering from increased crime are also losing residents. Between 2020 and 2022, San Francisco lost 7.5 percent of its population and New York City lost more than 5 percent.