The 52nd Fighter Wing trial courtroom at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, May 6, 2024. Staff Sgt. Rebecca Wright pleaded guilty in a summary court-martial at Spangdahlem on April 28, 2025, to one count of negligent homicide. She was accused of killing a cyclist in the Netherlands in 2023. (Albert Morel/U.S. Air Force)
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany — An American airman serving in Belgium was reprimanded Monday and ordered to pay $2,600, ending a saga that saw her accused of killing a cyclist and surviving what her attorneys called a retaliatory stabbing attack.
Staff Sgt. Rebecca Wright, assigned to the 701st Munitions Support Squadron at Kleine Brogel Air Base, pleaded guilty to negligent homicide during a summary court-martial, the lowest of the three levels of severity in military trials.
Wright avoided a general court-martial as part of a last-minute plea deal that allowed her to face the lower maximum punishments associated with the lessened type of proceedings, according to a response from the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem.
Prosecutors also sought to have Wright’s rank reduced to senior airman, arguing that not demoting her for the offense would set a bad example.
However, Judge Col. Andrew Norton appeared to side largely with the defense’s contention that the “heinous vigilante attack” on Wright had already inflicted more severe punishment on her.
The negligent homicide charge resulted from a traffic crash in the Netherlands two years ago that left an Iranian immigrant dead.
Wright said in court Monday that she was driving in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on May 14, 2023, to attend a roller derby match, when she failed to slow down at a yield sign and collided with Faride Khoshnoud Fashandi, who was on a bicycle.
Several months later, the victim’s husband attacked Wright, stabbing her over 100 times with a kitchen knife to avenge the death, Wright and her lawyers said in court.
VRT, the public broadcaster of Belgium’s Flemish community, reported on the stabbing, saying that it happened in Kleine-Brogel on Feb. 20, 2024, and that the 24-year-old victim was left with serious injuries to her hands and face. A local resident heard screams and called police, VRT said.
Speaking through tears in court Monday, Wright said that during the attack, the man choked, punched and stabbed her repeatedly over a span of five minutes.
She told the court that she has over two dozen scars from the attack and suffers from PTSD, anxiety and depression.
“I deeply regret the tragic loss,” Wright said of the fatal collision. “This tragic accident has reshaped my entire life in every aspect.”
Wright was shaken by the collision and stayed in the car while her then-boyfriend, another airman, went to check on Fashandi before the paramedics arrived, she said. Fashandi died in the hospital the following day.
Fashandi’s only child, Narcis Serafras, told the court Monday that her mother had fled Iran about three decades ago at age 29 for a better life in the Netherlands.
“My mother was an incredibly kind, selfless and courageous woman,” Serafras said, adding that her father was unable to get over the loss. He died by suicide in April 2024.
“I lost both my parents in less than a year due to a single moment of negligence by Ms. Wright,” Serafras said.
Serafras’ father, who wasn’t named during the proceedings, stalked Wright for months before he attempted to kill her, the airman said Belgian authorities told her.
The investigation into the 2023 crash that killed Fashandi has been closed, a spokesman for the Netherlands East Brabant Police Department said Monday.
Stars and Stripes reporter Jennifer Svan contributed to this report.
