HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — No arrest warrant has been issued days after a west Houston man was indicted in the parking lot dispute murder of an Afghan refugee.
Instead, 31-year-old Katia Bougere was issued a summons to appear in court on the murder charge Tuesday morning, which multiple attorneys tell Eyewitness News is unusual.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office, which attorneys say decides whether to issue warrants, declined to explain its reasoning.
“I’ve worked in this complex since 1999, so 26 years, and I’ve never seen or heard of a summons in a murder case,” said Joe Vinas, a former chief felony prosecutor for the District Attorney’s Office who now works as a criminal defense attorney.
“It is an anomaly,” said Murray Newman, a defense attorney who also once worked as a prosecutor.
Abdul Waziri, a father of two who served alongside the U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan, was shot multiple times on April 27 after police say he and the shooter argued over a parking spot at their west Houston apartment complex.
Waziri’s family previously told Eyewitness News that Waziri and the shooter had been in a physical altercation prior to the shooting.
But Omar Khawaja, an attorney representing Waziri’s family, said any possible self-defense claim is contradicted by eyewitness testimony.
“After that altercation is completely over, Mr. Waziri is then shot. The shooter returns to his vehicle, grabs a gun,” said Khawaja.
Bougere was briefly detained and questioned the night of the shooting but then released without being charged.
Members of the local Afghan community protested the absence of charges outside the Houston Police Department days later.
At the time, the District Attorney’s Office declined to say how it would proceed with the case, but in June, it announced that it would refer the matter to a grand jury.
“It kind of signals a desire on the DA’s office, in some instances, that they don’t think there’s enough evidence to sustain a charge. They just want to run it by a grand jury and say, ‘Our citizens looked at this,'” said Newman.
The grand jury returned its indictment Monday, and Bougere was issued a summons to appear the following day.
Prosecutors have filed a motion for his bond to be set at $100,000, but he won’t have to post a bond prior to Tuesday’s court date.
Waziri’s brother told Eyewitness News he worries Bougere, who appears to have no criminal history in Texas, might not show up to court.
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