Feds: Suspect in D.C. National Guard Shooting Drove from Wash. State to Carry Out Attack
What to know
- The suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., was identitied as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghani who arrived in the U.S. in 2021 as part of evacuation efforts and was granted asylum in 2025.
- He worked alongside the CIA in Kandahar and was resettled in Washington State with federal assistance after the war.
- Lakanwal drove from Bellingham to D.C. and ambushed two National Guard members with a .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson revolver, critically wounding them before being shot and arrested.
“This is a fluid investigation,” Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Thursday. “People are working around the clock. It’s too soon to say what the motive is, but there are definitely areas that we’re looking into.”
Lakanwal drove from Bellingham, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border, to Washington, D.C., to carry out the attack, authorities said.
On Wednesday, Lakanwal darted from around a corner just a few blocks from the White House and ambushed two National Guard members, firing from a powerful .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson revolver, officials said. He critically wounded Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, before being shot by another Guard member and arrested.
Beckstrom and Wolfe are both from West Virginia, and the state’s governor initially said Wednesday that the two had died in the shooting, before walking back those comments. The two soldiers were listed Thursday in critical condition.
More than 2,000 National Guard troops were already in the nation’s capital following orders from President Trump, and Trump ordered 500 more troops into the city following Wednesday’s attack. Trump was in Florida, not the White House, during Wednesday’s surprise shooting.
With News Wire Services
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