After serving alongside American soldiers for five years as an Afghan interpreter, Faisal Razmal resettled in the United States to begin a new life.
Razmal, 28, worked with the U.S. Army from 2009 to 2014 and survived roadside bombings, firefights and sniper attacks. Less than a year after arriving here, Razmal was shot in the face at close range with a flare gun during an attempted robbery in Sacremento, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Razmal was gathered with other Afghan refugees outside his apartment complex in August 2015, when several teenagers approached them. The teens demanded cash and cell phones, threatening Razmal and his friends with violence. "I said, 'Why do you do this? Put down your pistol, we'll talk,'" Razmal said.
The group of teens briefly left, only to return a few minutes later. Police said 16-year-old Renardo Dejour Williams shot Razmal with a flare gun. A piece of shrapnel from the flare severed his left optical nerve, leaving him blind in one eye.
In the months following the incident, Razmal struggled to find work and fell under a pile of debt from his medical bills. His wife gave birth to their second child, Malik, and is now expecting a third. As an immigrant, Razmal has also struggled to find a new home in a safer area, as his lack of a credit history has caused concerns for potential landlords.
"The quality of SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) housing can be downright Third World. We have an obligation to smooth their re-entry into society, to help them with accommodations that are not primitive, that are safe," Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Portland, Oregon, who authored the legislation that allowed Afghans who worked for the U.S. to immigrate to America, told the Sacramento Bee.
The California Victim Compensation Fund — along with Medi-Cal and the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance — provided Razmal with temporary assistance to cover medical costs, but by last spring most of that money was gone. Razmal has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and is battling severe depression.
Razmal is among more than 2,000 Afghan refugees living in Sacramento County.
