[4] In 1987, Shapiro and fellow filmmaker Jim Lindelof were killed in Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War.
[5][6] The armed group they were traveling with reported that they had been ambushed by military forces of the Soviet Union or the Afghan government.
However, the details have been questioned, partly because of the poor reputation of the group's leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
[7][8] In 1988, both houses of Congress passed a bill recommending that Shapiro and Lindelof, along with journalist Charles Thronton, receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
[10] In 2006 the documentary film Shadow of Afghanistan, by Suzanne Bauman and Jim Burroughs, was released.