Steve Nikoui, the father of the late Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui was arrested on Thursday for disrupting President Joe Biden’s third State of the Union address.
The 51-year-old Gold Star father was charged with misdemeanor protest of “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding” after violating D.C. Code, U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) said in a statement obtained by The Hill.
“Our officers warned him to stop and when he did not, the man was removed from the House Galleries,” USCP said, adding that “disrupting the Congress and demonstrating in the congressional buildings is illegal.”
Mr. Nikoui had been heard shouting “Abbey Gate” and “United States Marines” from the balcony of the House chamber as President Biden spoke about foreign policy, claiming America is “safer today” than when he took office in January 2021.
On Aug. 26, 2021, an ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated explosives outside the Abbey Gate at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing dozens, including Mr. Nikoui’s 20-year-old son and 12 other U.S. service members.
Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), a military veteran who invited Mr. Nikoui as his guest, confirmed the arrest in a post on social media platform X.
Authorities are holding my guest for shouting at President Biden in protest because his son was killed in action at the Abbey Gate “due to Biden’s incompetence,” Mr. Mast wrote.
“So much for the right to petition our government for the redress of grievances,” he added.
According to D.C. Code, it is prohibited to protest “in an area where it is otherwise unlawful to demonstrate.” It is also forbidden to continue “after being instructed by a law enforcement officer to cease engaging in a demonstration.”
Other members of Congress, including Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), a former Navy SEAL, also reacted to Mr. Nikoui’s arrest.
“Well, you know it’s interesting because I just walked by congressman Jamaal Bowman, who intentionally pulled the fire alarm, which is a felony in the District of Columbia, and he was not arrested,” Mr. Van Orden said of the arrest, The Washington Examiner reported.
“If Gold Star families are being arrested and a member of Congress was not arrested for committing a felony, that’s not right,” he added.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) told The Daily Mail after the speech that he believes it was “shameful” that he was arrested.
“I was with the [sic] all of the Gold star families just before the speech,” Mr. Waltz said.
Families Rocked by Tragic Losses
Following Mr. Nikoui’s son’s death during the Biden administration’s chaotic evacuation from Kabul’s international airport, the fallen marine’s older brother, Dakota Halverson, died by suicide in California just days shy of the first anniversary of the attack.
“My son Dakota went to be with his brother Kareem,” his mother, Shana Chappell, said in a statement on Facebook in August 2022.
“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,” she wrote.
Families of U.S. service members killed in the final days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan denounced the Biden administration at an Aug. 7 hearing for what they said was a flawed evacuation plan and lack of accountability for what went wrong.
The hearing was the first public forum at which Gold Star families—close relatives of U.S. military members who died in combat or in support of certain combat operations—could testify on the events of that day.
Kelly Barnett, the mother of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover recalled messages her son shared soon after arriving in Afghanistan in mid-August, just weeks before the bombing. She said he was uneasy about the operation and felt the proper support and organization were not in place.
“His concern began the moment that he landed and saw what he saw,” said Ms. Barnett. “His words were ‘chaos,’ ‘no communication,’ ‘lack of leadership.'” He said he’d never seen anything like it.
“He told me, ‘Mom, I now know that the command cares nothing for us.’ My son and 12 others left this earth thinking that their command cared nothing for them. The wounded feel that their command felt nothing for them. The survivors felt that their command felt nothing for them. I feel this as well.”
The marine’s father Darren Hoover expressed similar sentiments, saying the Biden administration failed his son.
“The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General [Mark] Milley, to say that they’re satisfied with the withdrawal of our troops is nothing short of disgusting and ignorant,” Mr. Hoover said.
“With all of these generals having approximately 90 years of experience combined … and to come up with a plan that they attempted to carry out … is despicable. And to say to Congress that they thought it was a good withdrawal … [they] are sorely, sorely mistaken,” he added.
Ross Muscato contributed to this report.