US treating National Guard shooting as terrorism case

The United States is treating the shooting of two National Guard members near the White House as a terrorism investigation, FBI director Kash Patel said on Thursday.

Patel added that the suspected shooter, an Afghan national, had previously worked in Afghanistan alongside US forces and intelligence.

What’s the latest on the Washington shootings?

“It is an ongoing investigation of terrorism,” Patel told reporters, a day after the shooting left both Guard members critically wounded.

“We are fully investigating that aspect of his background as well to include any known associates that are either overseas or here in the United States of America, that is what a broad based international terrorism investigation looks like,” he said.

At the same breifing, Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, identified the victims as Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24. Both were hospitalized in critical condition after the shooting on Wednesday afternoon.

Pirro also warned that the charges could be upgraded depending on the victims’ condition: “We are praying that they survive and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree. But make no mistake, if they do not, that will certainly be the charge.”

The FBI continues to investigate any possible overseas connections and domestic associates while both victims remain in critical care.

What do we know about the suspect?

Pirro said the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, had driven across the country to the US capital to carry out what she described as an “ambush-style” attack using a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver. He currently faces charges of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. Pirro said “it’s too soon to say” what the suspect’s motives were.

The 29-year-old suspect has been living in the US since entering the country in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Joe Biden administration initiative that has relocated tens of thousands of Afghans since the US withdrawal.

Officials said the program brought about 76,000 evacuees to the US, many of them former interpreters and local staff who worked alongside US troops and diplomats.

The effort has faced scrutiny from Trump and his allies, as well as from congressional Republicans and several watchdogs, over gaps in the vetting process and the pace of admissions. Meanwhile, advocates have argued the program provided a critical pathway for people threatened by Taliban reprisals.

The suspect, identified as Lakamal, has been living in Bellingham, Washington state, roughly 80 miles (about 120 kilometers) north of Seattle, with his wife and five children, according to former landlord Kristina Widman.

Before arriving in the US in 2021, he worked with the US government — including the CIA — “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” according to officials.

Trump said after the arrest of the suspect that the US would re-examine “every single alien” who entered the country from Afghanistan under Biden.

Shortly afterward, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on X that it was indefinitely stopping the processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals, effective immediately.