The brother of one of the 13 U.S. service members killed in the Kabul airport bombing committed suicide at his memorial, nearly one year after the attack.
Police reported that Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui’s older brother, Dakota Halverson, 28, died on Aug. 9. Their mother, Shana Chappell announced the heartbreaking news the same day.
“The month of August has been very hard so far with the one year coming up. I look at my kids as strong and like they can handle anything. That was my mistake. My son Dakota has been talking a lot lately about how he just wants to be with Kareem, how much he misses him, etc…. We all feel that way so I didn’t see the signs. This morning my son Dakota went to be with his brother Kareem,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
Town Hall senior writer Julio Rosas (previously of the Washington Examiner) shared a link to a GoFundMe page set up by the mother. More than $24,000 was raised as of press time.
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Police offered few details aside from confirming Dakota’s death. The body was found in Peak Pikes Park at 7:09 in the morning and the time of death was sometime overnight, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in California. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) revealed on Saturday that the 28-year-old’s death had taken place at a memorial for his deceased brother.
“The older brother of one of the 13 KIA in Kabul recently killed himself at his little brother’s memorial. Please pray for his family. There MUST be accountability for this continued carnage,” he tweeted.
The older brother of one of the 13 KIA in Kabul recently killed himself at his little brother’s memorial. Please pray for his family. There MUST be accountability for this continued carnage. https://t.co/7nPjpoqR4H
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) August 13, 2022
On Aug. 26, 2021, Nikoui was standing atop a concrete traffic barrier on the outskirts of Hamid Karzai International Airport, providing security for other U.S. service members and Afghan civilians fleeing imminent Taliban rule, when an suicide bomber 30 feet away detonated a vest filled with explosives and ball bearings, killing Nikoui along with 12 other servicemen and women and around 170 Afghans, according to the Washington Post. It’s estimated that 45 other U.S. servicemen and women were wounded.
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Nikoui’s mother has been a vocal critic of President Joe Biden and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, saying they unnecessarily put her son in a dangerous situation that got him killed. She also has expressed the belief that the Pentagon covered up their mishandling of the evacuation of Afghanistan and airport bombing, with an investigative report contradicting numerous eyewitness testimonies of the servicemen on the ground who survived the bombing.
Anyone who is having thoughts of suicide or knows someone who is having them is advised to contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
