Reporters Rebecca Santana and Ellen Knickmeyer, video journalist Serkan Gurbuz, and photographers Mariam Zulhaib and Nathan Howard told the story of a former U.S. military interpreter in Afghanistan, who fled the Taliban only to be shot to death while working as a ride-share driver in Washington, D.C.
With great sensitivity, the team went beyond the horrifying facts of the crime to paint a portrait of Nasrat Ahmad Yar, showing through his friends and family members who he was as a person. Through interviews with one of his best friends, his cousin and a woman who helped Ahmad Yar’s evacuation from Afghanistan, photos and video coverage of the funeral portraying a grieving family and Afghan community, AP gave his life and death the in-depth, all-formats treatment that it deserved.