Ahmad Fawad Yusufi, a refugee from Afghanistan and father of three, was shot dead in a botched robbery attempt in San Francisco last month. His family says Yusufi, a former U.S. Army interpreter who lived in Sacramento, was in San Francisco driving for Uber, a job that was their only source of income.

The shuttle company said Yusufi appeared to be “offline” at the time of the shooting, meaning he was off duty, but his brother Ilyas says Yusufi worked for Uber all night Sunday, which is his reason for staying in San Francisco was early Monday morning at the time of filming. He has written a letter to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Chief Legal Officer Tony West, and Senior Vice President of Marketing and Public Affairs Jill Hazelbaker asking for $ 4 million in aid to Yusufi’s family – which he believes the company is “Ethically committed” – and has access to Yusufi’s deactivated Uber account. Ilyas believes the report may provide more information about the circumstances surrounding his brother’s death.

In an interview with The Verge, Ilyas said that it feels like Uber doesn’t care what happened to his brother. “He worked for them, but they don’t want to help us,” he said, adding that Yusufi’s wife does not speak English and is unable to work, so the family is at risk of losing their home. “At the moment we don’t know what to do. But when his children ask me what I did for their father, I have to tell them I tried. I have to try to give them a good life. ”

In his letter, Ilyas points to Khosrowshahi’s September blog post, in which he wrote about being an Iranian refugee as a child, and promised that Uber would support Afghan refugees. The CEO announced that Uber has added an in-app donate button that will send funds to International Rescue Committee refugee resettlement programs and added support for Pashto and Dari languages ​​to its Uber Driver app. “We want to make access to economic opportunities even easier for Afghan refugees, if they are ready,” wrote Khosrowshahi.

“… you turn your back on us in times of need”

But Ilyas said he and hundreds of other Afghan drivers often sleep in their cars while driving for Uber. “And now, after all the work we’ve done for your company, turn your back on us in times of need,” he writes.

In response to a request for comment from The Verge, Uber spokesman Austen Radcliff said in an email that the company was “saddened by this senseless act of violence that killed Mr. Yusufi. Our hearts are with his family at this difficult time. ”Radcliff added that Yusufi was not online or on a trip at the time of the incident and that his last trip was the night before. Uber has reached out to the family to offer their condolences, Radcliff said, and is working to give them access to the account. He referred to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle in which police said Yusufi was with a friend near a park at the time of the incident.

Uber has historically tried to postpone responsibility for incidents with its drivers – who are considered independent contractors rather than employees of the company – if the drivers were inactive at the time.

Perhaps the most famous test for this position is an incident in 2013 where a driver who said he worked for Uber in San Francisco ambushed a family at a zebra crossing and killed six-year-old Sofia Liu. However, the company claimed that although the driver was a “partner” of Uber, he “did not provide any services on the Uber system during the incident”. A lawyer for Liu’s family said the driver was logged into the Uber app at the time to check fares, even though he did not have a passenger in the car when he hit Liu. The company eventually settled out of court with the family, and the incident resulted in new state law requiring drivers and businesses to get liability insurance when using a ride-hailing app.

Yusufi isn’t the first Uber driver to be killed on the job

And Yusufi isn’t the first Uber driver to be killed on the job; two of the most recent incidents are Javier Ramos, who was shot dead in an attempted car theft in Chicago in March, and Timothy Perkins, who was beaten and stabbed to death in Detroit in January.

Driving for the company’s delivery platform Uber Eats can also be dangerous. Pakistani immigrant Mohammad Anwar was killed in an attempted car theft in Washington, DC in March. Two teenagers pleaded guilty to the murder.

Cherri Murphy, an organizer of Gig Workers Rising, a Bay Area organization that supports Yusufi’s family, said Uber drivers sleeping in their cars were not uncommon in the area and criticized the company as it stood out from the crowd “washed his hands” for him and his family. “That is just unacceptable. We stand in strong solidarity with Ahmad’s family and for workers everywhere who are endangered or killed at work. ”

Ilyas, who also drives for Uber, says he and his brother came to the US in 2017 and typically made the trip from Sacramento to San Francisco every weekend to make money on the ride-hailing platform. In his letter to the Uber executives, there is a request that the platform pay its drivers better.

“When my brother and I went to San Francisco every weekend, we couldn’t afford a hotel room after driving your customers around town all night,” Ilyas wrote. “We bring people like you to your multi-million dollar homes every day. We deserve a safe, hospitable place to sleep for the night after. “

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Police released a video on Wednesday of officers shooting a knife-wielding man who attacked them in a residential hotel.

Ajmal Amani, 41, was shot dead in the narrow hallway of the building on the South of Market Friday morning after threatening several people with a large kitchen knife. He was shot in the stomach and leg and died in the hospital.

Amani was a former Afghan US special forces interpreter who had been shot multiple times in more than five years of service and struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, his former attorney, case manager and real estate administrator told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Amani was charged with fatal assault in 2019 for allegedly slashing a city park ranger with a cutter who said he appeared to be in an “altered state of mind”.

Amani was ordered to undergo a mental distraction, which he completed this year while living in a city-rented room in the residential hotel.

Police were called to the hotel on Friday morning after a man yelled and screamed and had a knife. Amani’s case manager also called 911 to report a colleague said Amani was having “a really bad episode.”

On Wednesday, police released video and footage from hotel surveillance from officers’ body cameras. They show Amani holding the knife and gesturing with it, confronting two people, including someone who fends off him with a broom, and then walking past other people into a room.

When two police officers arrive, the man with the broom tells them that Amani threatened to kill him.

An officer tells the radio operator that they can hear Amani screaming.

According to the body camera video, the officers stay in the hallway and try to speak to Amani, who is in a room. Amani swears and tells them to leave him alone and an officer says, “Nobody wants to hurt you.”

Less than a minute later, Amani storms down the hall and is shot after an officer yells, “Stay there! Stay here!”

According to police, Amani was holding a knife with a 6-inch blade. He was shot four times with a handgun and three times with beanbag bullets.

When Amani was on the ground and still moving, more officers came. They waited several minutes to carefully approach him, then handcuffed him and used CPR and a tourniquet on him before the paramedics arrived.

At a town hall virtual meeting where the video was released, Police Chief Bill Scott said his department and prosecutors were investigating the shooting. Scott said he personally offered condolences to Amani’s family.

Scott Grant, an assistant public defender who represented Amani, said he was “utterly devastated” by his death.

Grant said Amani suffered “incredible trauma and violence” while serving in the US Forces.

“His tragic death is a failure of our systems of government here to support someone who risked their life to support this country,” Grant told KTVU-TV.

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SAN JOSE (KPIX) – Santa Clara County has allocated nearly $ 1 million in new funding to assist Afghan refugees relocate to the South Bay.

A unanimous vote by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday increased funding for annual service contracts with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley (JFSSV) from $ 185,000 to $ 250,000 for each organization.

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The vote also approved one-time funding of $ 750,000 to provide shelter, food, employment and transportation for the refugees entering Santa Clara County.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the guards learned that the IRC had already relocated 40 Afghan refugees and the JFSSV had processed 25 so far. About 300 refugees will arrive in South Bay over the next 12 months.

Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, who drafted the proposal together with Supervisor Otto Lee, called the effort a “moral obligation”.

â € œThis is the core of what we as humans do for one another. We are literally saving lives and helping people start over here. And I wanted to do what I could to make this easier for the people doing the hard work of relocation. said Ellenberg.

At My Breakfast House, a popular eatery in San Carlos, owner Kakey Chang said that pictures of the refugees … Escape from Kabul were “heartbreaking”. Chang has open positions for hosts and table bussers and is encouraging Afghans to apply.

“If you need a job and I have a job, feel free to apply here, work here,” said Chang.

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Chang, who immigrated to the United States from Taiwan as a child, emphasized the importance of making Afghan refugees feel welcome.

â € œYou always try to help. Someone fell down? Your attempt to help them. Help them get up. It’s the same idea. Why help? It’s human nature. We all have to help, â ???? said Chang.

Shef, a San Francisco-based startup, also offers support through direct donations and also through the platform. The company is an online homemade grocery marketplace where customers can order dishes from local neighborhood chefs.

Shef offers refugees a $ 3,500 scholarship for supplies, tools, and marketing, and waives all fees on the platform. In addition, locally established users are delivering Afghan dishes to recently relocated refugees in the Bay Area.

Last week “Shef Laila” delivered 100 meals to the Muslim community center in Pleasanton with the message “Dear fellow Afghans, peace and blessings be upon you. We welcome you to the United States. We hope you like and enjoy this food.

â € œI just hope other companies and other business leaders think about what they could do too. It may be something completely different, but hopefully we are all in a unique position to do something to help and that is what we are trying to do here, â ???? said Alvin Salehi, co-founder and co-CEO of Shef.

Salehi, the son of Iranian immigrants, said the Afghan refugee crisis was striking.

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“Many of them came to the United States under incredibly difficult and devastating circumstances. I hope we will treat her kindly. My hope is that we will actually try to show them the America they have always dreamed of, â ???? said Salehi.

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CONCORD (KPIX) – After nearly 20 years, the United States officially left Afghanistan on Tuesday. But it leaves a nation in turmoil and thousands of refugees who are looking for new homes in America and for some in the Bay Area.

Over the weekend, volunteers met at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Concord to start planning relief efforts for Afghan refugees. This includes food, shelter, interpreters, social services and assistance for families with children from infants to teenagers.

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“They left the country with nothing but what they were wearing. So we plan to provide everything for them, ”said Sadique Popal, chairman of the board of the Islamic Center.

On Tuesday afternoon, local Afghans met with Congressman Mark DeSaulnier, who says the state is ready to do its part despite the cost of living in California.

“We have relocated more people from around the world who came here as refugees than in any other state,” said DeSaulnier. “And so we have a good infrastructure. Is it perfect No, but we’re getting better and better. “

But the Afghans also want the federal government to put international pressure on the Taliban to end their brutal oppression of the Afghan people, especially their women, which has made so much progress over the years.

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“They had an education to which they previously had no access. They had prestige that they had no access to before, ”said Popal. “That’s why – we’ve brought them this far, it hurts so much right now! It’s so sad to just leave them there. “

“It just feels like everything that has moved forward in the last 30 years has somehow crumbled,” said Henah Akbar, a young Afghan American who lives in Clayton. “People ask, why has the US been there for 20 years when the Taliban are still there? So it almost feels like a failure. “

But unlike when the Russians left, few Afghans wanted to see the Americans leave, according to Fazel Adiani.

“You have withdrawn a lot of problems,” he said. “They couldn’t bring peace, they couldn’t bring a solution, and they couldn’t decide what to do. But they left the country, left great unrest in the country. “

With the US going as it did, there is little military influence left, but DeSaulnier said the Taliban must be careful or risk isolation from the global community. But will the Taliban even care? Many Afghans believe that they are less interested in building a nation than simply demolishing it.

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The organizers say the relief efforts in the Bay Area will encompass every aspect of life for Afghan refugees. For more information on the required requirements, visit noorislamicandculturalcommunitycenter.com.

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LOS GATOS (KPIX) – Now that the emergency evacuation deadline has expired in Afghanistan, communities in the Bay Area and across the country are preparing for the arrival and resettlement of thousands of Afghan refugees. Housing is one of their most urgent needs.

The Silicon Valley Jewish Family Service expects to relocate around 200 refugees by the end of September. Board member Dorene Kastelman publicly appeals to homeowners to consider offering vacant bedrooms and vacant properties.

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“It really is a kind of experience that allows you to have your own privacy and your own life and still have this excellent cultural exchange. And a chance to help someone in need, ”said Kastelman.

Kastelman and her husband Jim have taken 8 refugees in succession to their home in Los Gatos since 2018. Some stay for a few months, others for up to a year. And they all shared the same bedroom that once belonged to one of their own children, with an adjoining bathroom on the ground floor.

“For some people, lying on a bed instead of lying on the floor was a big transition,” Kastelman said.

In the kitchen, too, the Kastelmans ensure that the refugees have their own space by creating space in the refrigerator and pantry. Guests are cordially invited to attend evening family dinners. The refugees often cook local dishes to share with their hosts.

“You did a fantastic job cooking,” said Kastelman.

JFSSV offers case management, employment counseling, medical care, mental health services, gift cards and debit cards for groceries and other personal expenses, and a bike and VTA bus pass for transportation.

“I didn’t think any of us would expect refugees to be as grateful and respectful as they were. It was just amazing, ”said Jim. “They did everything to make us comfortable.”

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The Kastelmans said it was “rewarding and enjoyable” to take refugees on day trips around California, teaching them about American life and connecting through their shared love for nature.

“Once the action starts and people know the great experience like the one we’ve had, I think it makes it a lot easier to take the risk,” said Kastelman.

The latest count of people evacuated from Afghanistan is 120,000, including 5,400 Americans.

Images of the chaos at the airport in Kabul and the nearby American facilities from Afghanistan sparked deep feelings of solidarity and empathy in the Vietnamese community, who fled their homeland after the end of the Vietnam War.

Thi Tran came to the United States in 1978 and was relocated to Kentucky. Tran, who has lived in the Bay Area for a long time, recently donated several hundred dollars to refugee aid organizations and is looking for ways to find shelter for the arriving Afghans, including possibly opening their own home.

“We have to do something, because we know the feeling of leaving our home. It’s a moral obligation, ”said Tran.

Tran remembered a social worker named Mr. Manly who took several of her family members into his home.

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“How could you forget? And it means so much. It means so much. And that’s why I think it’s so important that we have to do the same. To welcome the people now who are like us years ago,” said Tran .

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After Biden was informed of a US drone mission in eastern Afghanistan that the Pentagon said killed two members of Islamic State on Saturday, he promised further attacks on ISIS-K, the group responsible for the bombings in Kabul.

In the Bay Area, more than 200 protesters gathered in the UN Plaza, focusing on peace.

The event began with the organizers playing the song “Sarzamine Man,” also known as “My Homeland,” followed by several speakers including Mary Steiner, President of the United Nations Chapter of San Francisco, Nahid Aria, Dari- Translator and coordinator for Afghan operations with the Alameda District Attorney and Shahid Buttar, an attorney and candidate for California’s 12th Congressional District.

A solidarity protest marches down Market Street in San Francisco on Saturday, August 28, 2021. (Annelise Finney / KQED)

Aziza Popal, who attended the rally, said she fled Afghanistan on religious grounds many years ago because she was unable to practice Islam under the then rule of the Soviet Union. On Saturday she came to protest for voiceless people in her former home. “I am here to speak out on behalf of all men and women. We are very dismayed by what is happening in Afghanistan right now,” she said.

Marena Habibi, an organizer of the rally, said the thousands of refugees now entering the Bay Area may not receive food aid, cash aid or shelter, and urged protesters to seek more support from their representatives in the government. Afghans arriving in the United States can qualify for the state and state levels using a variety of legal terminology, and refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, and probation officers are all eligible for a variety of programs and services.

“President Biden, you did not end the war, you created global chaos and we are now seeing the consequences,” she said. “These Afghans have been betrayed by the world and need help now.”

Protest organizers said the US-led war had disintegrated Afghan society. “Afghan citizens have no choice but to flee their homes or to stay and risk death from these forces,” the organizers wrote in a statement.

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OAKLAND (KPIX) – The network of religious organizations, nonprofits, nonprofit providers, volunteers and donors in the Bay Area is expanding in preparation for the waves of several hundred Afghan refugees to the South Bay, East Bay and beyond.

“At the moment we just expect the numbers to continue to rise. We anticipate a likely 200 relocation by September, ”said Holly Taines White, senior director of development and community engagement for Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay.

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According to White, that first round of Afghans arriving in Alameda and Contra Costa counties have a local connection with a friend or relative or a special immigrant visa. Some of the refugees had supported the US government in some way and made them targets of the Taliban.

White added that there had been an “outpouring” of support with thousands of volunteers.

“That’s one of the things we love so much about refugee resettlement in this community that it’s a really welcoming and warm community. And they understand the moral need to provide security and refuge for these people, ”White said.

Mindy Berkowitz, executive director of the Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley, also expects to relocate around 200 Afghans by the end of September, and said the most pressing need is housing. Berkowitz called property owners with job offers.

“What we used to call a family-in-law or an additional house in the backyard. We have people who may be empty nests who still have big homes and can open their homes to a family. We also look for and work with people who own condominiums or own an Airbnb, ”said Berkowitz.

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JFSSV has also set a donation goal of $ 500,000 over the six months to help hire more staff and double the number of case managers and counselors in mental health, professional training, and other resources.

“The Bay Area is a place that celebrates diversity, and I know we will do everything we can to welcome these refugees who were there for us when we needed them,” said Berkowitz.

The Bay Area has a long history of helping refugees, one of the most notable being Operation Baby Lift’s first flight, which landed in Oakland in 1975. Hamilton Air Force Base in Novato processed thousands of Vietnamese refugees in the years that followed, many of whom were resettled nearby. The Bay Area is now home to one of the largest gatherings of Vietnamese Americans in the country.

For Dr. UCSF’s Tung Nguyen was eerily reminiscent of the fall of Saigon and the chaotic evacuation in 1975 to see the pictures of Afghans crowding into US facilities, chasing American military planes on the tarmac, and handing infants over to Marines.

“These photos from Afghanistan were really emotionally traumatic for me,” said Nguyen.

Nguyen, the president of PIVOT, the Progressive Vietnamese American Organization, has called in an open letter to allow more Afghan refugees to enter the USA.

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“I think the Vietnamese Americans in the United States really helped the country. And I have no doubt that the Afghan refugees we allow into this country will make a huge contribution to our country over time, ”said Nguyen. “The Vietnamese Americans who are here are here mainly because they took risks. And they had people to help them. And we just can’t sit by and do nothing while someone else is going through the same thing as us. “

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