Disclaimer: Article has mentions of killing and violence.
A Texas man accused of murdering his former coworker over tens of thousands of dollars is now behind bars after police say his own social media activity led investigators straight to him.
Authorities in San Antonio arrested 23-year-old Naqibullah Habibzoi of Houston last week, charging him with murder in the death of 30-year-old Awal Noor Kiftan. The killing took place on May 31 outside Kiftan’s apartment complex on the city’s Northwest Side and was allegedly the result of a $31,000 debt Kiftan owed.
TikToker Naqibullah Habibzoi, 23, has been arrested & charged with murdering his former co-worker, Awal Noor Kiftan, 34, allegedly over a $31,000 debt & bragging about it online.
Awal was shot multiple times & killed outside his San Antonio apartment on May 31. He was reportedly… pic.twitter.com/ZvgsM6kqcv
— True Crime Updates (@TrueCrimeUpdat) August 25, 2025
According to an arrest affidavit cited by the San Antonio Express-News, officers responded to the apartment around 11 p.m. that night and found Kiftan dead from multiple gunshot wounds. A friend told investigators that they had been inside the apartment with Kiftan shortly before his death.
Kiftan received a phone call, was told that a woman had arrived outside to meet him, and stepped out. Within moments, he was ambushed and fatally shot. Detectives later identified Habibzoi as the shooter and evidence suggests he traveled from Houston to San Antonio that day to confront Kiftan over money.
What stunned the police was what happened next. Instead of keeping a low profile, Habibzoi allegedly returned to Houston and began publishing a series of posts on TikTok that referenced the killing.
Unforgiving TikToker is arrested after bragging about killing co-worker over $31,000 debt: ‘Never move on without taking revenge’ https://t.co/RiVIKelKed
— Zicutake USA Comment (@Zicutake) August 25, 2025
Investigators confirmed he was behind the account @khosti2002, which as of Sunday remained active with more than 20,000 followers. “If you do something bad to us, something bad will happen to you,” he allegedly wrote in one post. In another, police say he proclaimed, “We never move on without taking our revenge.”
Further incriminating material surfaced in a recorded phone call obtained by police. In it, Habibzoi allegedly bragged about killing Kiftan, boasting that “he finished him” over the $31,000 debt. According to details in the affidavit, he even went so far as to claim “he did it with his hands,” adding that “his heart is pleased and satisfied” with the outcome.
In the days following the shooting, Habibzoi appeared to double down on the social media posts, even sharing a photo of Kiftan while referring to the incident. Local CBS affiliate WLTX reported that some of the posts were eventually deleted, but not before others shared them with police investigators. In subsequent messages, Habibzoi attempted to walk back the activity, saying his TikTok account had been hacked and that he was being framed. San Antonio police, however, maintain that other evidence decisively points to him.
One of the most critical pieces of evidence came from license plate detection systems placed throughout the region. Records showed Habibzoi’s vehicle making the trip from Houston to San Antonio and back again on the exact day of the killing, thus matching the timeline constructed by investigators. The affidavit notes that digital trails, eyewitness accounts, and his own online confessions all helped to prove that he was indeed guilty of the crime.
Habibzoi was arrested Thursday in Houston and subsequently booked into Bexar County Jail, where records show him being held without bail. He faces a single count of murder. Police officials say the TikTok videos, far from clearing his name, became one of the key factors in piecing together the chain of events that ended in Kiftan’s death.
