Steve Nikoui had some words for President Biden on Thursday night and led police to escort him out of the US Capitol.
Nikoui, the father of a U.S. Marine killed in 2021 as U.S. military forces withdrew from Afghanistan, was arrested for shouting two words, over and over, during Biden's State of the Union address.
Nikoui's son, Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui was one of 13 US Marines who died during a suicide bombing on August 26, 2021 at Hamid Karzai International Airport. Nikoui, 20, was from Norco and assigned to a Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton.
On Thursday night, Steve Nikoui was in the House visitors' gallery as a guest of Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.). About an hour into Biden's speech, Steve Nikoui interrupted Biden when the president said, “America is safer today than when I took office.”
“Abbey Gate,” the 51-year-old Norco resident shouted as he rose from his seat.
Abbey Gate, a military base outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, was the scene of a frantic evacuation as US forces withdrew from Afghanistan. A suicide bomber carrying 20 pounds of explosives loaded with ball bearings killed more than 170 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. service members at the base.
US Capitol Police warned Nikou to stop, but he refused. He was removed from the chambers and arrested for “overcrowding, obstruction or discomfort,” according to a Capitol Police statement. “Disrupting Congress and demonstrating in Congressional buildings is illegal,” the statement said.
After, Mast gave this reaction in a social media post about X: “During the last three SOTU speeches, Joe Biden REFUSED to say the names of the 13 US service members who died during his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. He couldn't be more supportive of this effort. Say their names!
“Americans deserve to know the truth about how Biden killed 13 US service members in his disastrous retreat,” Mast wrote in another post. “They are so afraid of you knowing the truth that they ARRESTED me.” #SOTU guest.”
Nikoui was detained by the House sergeants-at-arms, Mast wrote. Capitol Police said the misdemeanor Nikoui allegedly committed typically carries a $50 fine, but it's unclear if he was forced to pay.
Norco's 1st Col. Kareem M. Nikoui (left) had dreamed of being a Marine since he was a small child, said his mother, Shana Chappell. He died on August 26 in the suicide bombing at Kabul airport, when he was 20 years old.
(Courtesy of the Nikoui/Chappell family)
A month after Nikou's death, his mother told the Times that she put all the blame on Biden.
Shana Chappell had just returned from Dover Air Force Base, where she watched coffins gently descend from a C-17 cargo plane, and where she met with Biden, the man she won't call president.
She told him that she did not want to talk to him but that she did so out of respect for her dead son. She told him that she would never hug her son again. She told him it was her fault.
“My son's blood,” he said, “is on your hands.”
Kareem Nikoui was one of five children and his mother drove approximately 80 miles every weekend to pick him up while he was stationed at Camp Pendleton.
When she returned from Pendleton after dropping him off on her birthday in 2020, she found a note on her pillow.
“He said he was sorry he hadn't bought me anything for my birthday,” Chappell recalls, “but he was short on money at the time.”
Then, just a month before his murder, Chappell received a steady stream of gifts from his son, who was stationed in Kabul. Sneakers and shoes. Soaps and lotions. Paintings he had commissioned of his dogs, Niko, Komodo and King.
“This birthday I had money to spend,” he said. “I just wanted to do something nice for his mom.”
Nikou was one of four Marines killed in the 2021 attack who were from Southern California. The other three included Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23, and Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, 20, and Cpl. Hunter López, 22 years old.
Los Angeles Times reporters Robin Estrin, María L. La Ganga and Brittny Mejía contributed to this report.
