SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – A suspect has been arrested in the investigation of the Nov. 28 shooting death of 31-year-old Ahmad Yusufi.
San Francisco police confirm the identity of the suspect as 38-year-old Clifford Stokes of Oakland.
Yusufi was an Afghanistan refugee working as an Uber driver when he was shot during an attempted robbery while seated in his vehicle on Potrero Ave. in San Francisco.
“It is good that there will be some closure for the family that a suspect will be caught. However, it will not change the fact that his loss is so significant to everyone,” Mizgon Darby said.
Mizgon Darby is the executive director of Mills College program Live-By-Learning and an activist in the Bay Area’s Afghan community for the past 20-years.
She says it is common for Afghan refugees to find work for rideshare companies here in the U.S. even though many are overqualified.
“Coming to the United States a lot of these professionals who were educated in Afghanistan, who have multiple degrees in some cases, turn to working in a gas station or driving an Uber to create independence for themselves financially in the beginning. I am confident this is what he was feeling,” Darby said.
In fact, Ahmad Yusufi’s education helped him gain a key role as an interpreter helping U.S. allies in the war in Afghanistan.
“Escape the war in Afghanistan only to be brutalized in a street war here in the United States,” Darby said.
Ahmad Yusufi leaves behind a wife and three small children.
“I cannot imagine what this woman is experiencing. I feel like this is a close step toward bringing closure to the family,” Darby said.