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The 29-year-old Afghan national has been detained over the shooting of two soldiers in an ‘ambush style attack’ in Washington on the eve of Thanksgiving
Rachel Dobkinin New York,Alex Croft,Joe SommerladFriday 28 November 2025 12:22 GMT
CloseTwo West Virginia National Guard members shot in Washington, D.C.
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Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, was taken into custody after two National Guard soldiers were shot in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday afternoon.
One of the two victims, Sarah Beckstrom, has since died of her injuries while the other, Andrew Wolfe, remains in a critical condition in hospital.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, President Donald Trump lashed out at the suspect, calling him an “animal,” describing the incident as a “monstrous, ambush-style attack,”.
As investigators look into motive, there are growing questions about how an Afghan national who once worked with the CIA ended up as the suspect in the deadly attack.
The president has blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for allowing Lakanwal into the country, despite it emerging that his own administration had granted the suspect’s asylum application in April.
open image in galleryRahmanullah Lakanwal, the 29-year-old Afghan national, who has been taken into custody after two National Guard soldiers were shot outside of a Metro station in Washington, D.C., Wednesday (Reuters)What do we know about the suspected shooter?
The suspect has been identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, originally from a village in the province of Khost in Afghanistan.
A close relative said the suspect had served in the Afghan Army for 10 years alongside U.S. Special Forces as part of the War on Terror, NBC News reported.
The New York Post has since reported that Lakanwal “struggled for years” with the violence he saw in his homeland as a part of a feared CIA-backed series of paramilitary groups known as Zero Units, with whom he served from as young as 16, initially as a security guard and later as a team leader and GPS specialist.
Such units are also known as “death squads” and Human Rights Watch has said it has documented several instances in which they were responsible for “extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances, indiscriminate airstrikes, attacks on medical facilities, and other violations of international humanitarian law.” The CIA disputes those accusations.
“When he saw blood, bodies, and the wounded, he could not tolerate it,” Muhammad, a childhood friend, told The New York Times. “It put a lot of pressure on his mind. “He would tell me and our friends that their military operations were very tough, their job was very difficult, and they were under a lot of pressure.”
open image in galleryU.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro speaks next to FBI Director Kash Patel and other authorities during a press conference Thursday (Reuters)Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Lakanwal came to the U.S. in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program aimed at resettling Afghans who had assisted the United States in its fight against the Taliban, which has taken in approximately 76,000 people.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed Lakanwal’s past association with his agency during an interview with Fox News Wednesday night, saying he had been a “member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation.”
“The Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the U.S. government, including CIA,” Ratcliffe added.
Lakanwal subsequently worked as a delivery driver in the U.S. to support his wife and five children and reportedly attempted to manage the post-traumatic stress identified by his friend with marijuana but also played the violent military-themed video game Call of Duty.
Authorities say the suspect and his family had been living in a sparsely-furnished apartment in Bellingham in Washington state, more than 2,600 miles from D.C., which he left behind earlier this week to travel long distance in a Hyundai sedan to perpetrate Wednesday’s atrocity.
open image in galleryLakanwal’s apartment block in Bellingham, Washington (Reuters)Two senior U.S. law enforcement officials told NBC the FBI are initially investigating the shooting as a possible act of terrorism. Lakanwal has reportedly not cooperated with the investigation so far.
Many details about the suspect are still unknown as he is still in the hospital receiving treatment, said Jeffery Carroll, executive assistant chief of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department. Lakanwal’s injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening.
Following the shooting, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency announced an immediate and indefinite halt to the “processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals” pending a review of security and vetting protocols.
Trump has since said he will “permanently pause” migration from “all third world countries.”
How did the shooting unfold?
Shots were fired in Washington D.C. at around 2.15pm ET on Wednesday near the Farragut West Metro Station, a few blocks from the White House.
The two wounded soldiers were part of a “high-visibility patrol” when they encountered the suspect, who rounded a corner, raised his arm and fired at them with a .357 revolver in an “ambush”, Carroll said.
Other National Guard troops quickly subdued the shooter after an exchange of gunfire. “They actually were able to intervene and to kind of hold down the suspect, after he had been shot, on the ground until law enforcement got there within moments,” he said.
open image in galleryNational Guard soldiers respond to the shooting near the White House on Wednesday (Getty)Building manager Amelia Smith, who works nearby and heard the gunfire, told NBC she heard four shots at first and then “many, many more”.
“I started seeing Secret Service members rushing by, running by, cycling by, and more and more sirens. I wasn’t sure if it was gunshots, but then I thought, OK, no one’s going to be putting off fireworks the day before Thanksgiving. And when I heard the sirens, I was like, this is, this is something serious,” she added.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has described the incident as a “targeted” shooting.
Who are the victims of the shooting?
The West Virginia soldiers shot during the incident were Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, who were raced to hospital in a critical condition and underwent surgery.
Trump announced at a Thanksgiving press conference that Beckstrom had died of her injuries and that Wolfe was still fighting for his life.
“Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we’re talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person, started service in June of 2023 outstanding in every way. She’s just passed away,” Trump said. “She’s no longer with us. She’s looking down at us right now. She was savagely attacked, she’s dead now.”
open image in galleryAndrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom, the two National Guardsmen shot in the incident (U.S. Attorney's Office)Wolfe is “in very bad shape,” the president added. “Hopefully we'll get better news with respect to him.”
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, there were conflicting reports about the victims’ conditions. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey initially wrongly announced that both had died, before later clarifying.
On Thursday, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, announced Lakanwal will be charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. Beckstrom’s death now means a first-degree murder charge is likely to be added.
Alex Woodward contributed to this reporting.