Houston crime: Son mourning the loss of his father who was killed by hit-and-run driver
HOUSTON - As he stares into a future without his father, Abdullah Noory recalls the final moments of the man who raised him, 71-year-old Gulmula Nasiri.
Abdullah says his father enjoyed long walks, no matter the time of day.
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On Sunday night, he said, "My father was about to go out for a walk and my wife says I want to go too."
While crossing the intersection of Braeswood and Sapling, their lives changed.
"On the way back, my daughter said she wanted to get out of the stroller and walk with her mom. Her mom took her hand to cross the road, and she seen that the light was red. And the car was very far away, so we decided to cross the road."
Abdullah says his father was steps away, pushing the stroller.
"They didn't care about the light, and they didn't stop, and the car hit my father and just ran away."
Abdullah's wife and daughter witnessed the entire thing, and the images are hard to forget.
"It's like two days, and she's in shock. She's crying a lot and most of the time she is remembering and repeating the accident that happened."
Police are looking for the driver of a white SUV, but no arrests have been made.
Once at the hospital, Abdullah says he waited for hours to see his father and get an update from the medical staff at Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center.
"At the time I saw five people, I said to myself, he's dead."
Gulmula Nasiri died a little more than a year into the pursuit of his American dream, thanks to his son's commitment to the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
"I was working with the Marines from 2009 to 2021, the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, I was an interpreter with them."
Once the U.S. left Afghanistan, Abdullah says he reached out his contacts in the States.
He says, "When the situation happened in Afghanistan in 2021, I told him that I was in a hard situation, and the Taliban took my house, and he said he would try to bring me to the United States."
On April 27, 2022, Abdullah brought his wife, daughter and father with him to start a new. Only to lose him at the intersection of Braeswood and Sapling.
"I lost my mother in 2019, so I had just my father with me in Afghanistan. I hope we find the driver, that's all."