Afghan national identified as suspect in National Guardsmen shooting in DC. Here’s what we know
By Lex Harvey, CNN
(CNN) — Two West Virginia National Guardsmen are in critical condition after a gunman opened fire near the White House on the day before Thanksgiving, in an attack that’s added fuel to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The suspect in the shooting has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who officials say came to the US in 2021 under a program implemented by the Biden administration in the wake of the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan. The suspect was also wounded and taken to the hospital, authorities said.
Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser described the attack as a “targeted shooting.” Earlier, Vice President JD Vance said the motive behind the shooting was still unknown.
Trump called the shooting an “act of terror” in remarks from his club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. The president called for a reexamination of every person from Afghanistan who came to the US under President Joe Biden, and railed against what he claimed are millions of “unknown and unvetted foreigners” admitted to the country under his predecessor.
Here’s what we know about the shooting, the suspect and the response:
Suspect came to the US in 2021 from Afghanistan, DHS says
Lakanwal arrived in the US on September 8, 2021 as part of a program called Operation Allies Welcome, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday night.
Biden launched the program in August 2021 to protect vulnerable Afghans in the wake of the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan and as the Taliban regained control of the country.
Over 190,000 Afghans have resettled in the US under both Operation Allies Welcome and the program that replaced it, known as Enduring Welcome, according to the State Department.
Most Afghans who arrived under Operation Allies Welcome were allowed to enter and remain in the US for two years, with no permanent immigration status. More than 40% of the migrants admitted in the program were eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) because they took great risks to help the US, or were related to someone who did, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Lakanwal applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted it the following year under the Trump administration, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN.
Afghans admitted to the US under Operation Allies Welcome underwent extensive vetting, despite claims by Trump and his allies at the time.
National Guardsmen were shot near the White House
The shooting took place around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday in Farragut Square, a tourist-heavy area located near a busy transit center and the White House.
The two Guardsmen were performing “high visibility patrols” when the suspect approached them, raised a gun and started shooting at them, Executive Assistant Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department Jeffery Carroll said at a news conference following the attack.
Carroll said after “some back and forth” the Guardsmen were “able to subdue” the suspect and take him into custody.
DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to provide first aid, Carroll said. The suspect and the Guardsmen were transported to area hospitals, he added.
An eyewitness named Patrick told CNN he was about to enter a nearby bar around 2:10 p.m. when he heard loud bangs and saw people running.
“They were thick gunshots. I mean, I couldn’t really tell if it was a rifle or a pistol, but some type of big caliber,” said Patrick, who declined to give his last name.
Once he stopped hearing gunshots, he walked to the intersection and saw two National Guardsmen and a third person on the ground. Shattered glass from the bus stop covered the ground. He said people were performing CPR on one of the Guardsman, while the other Guardsman had blood near his head.
Following the shooting, Trump asked for 500 more National Guard troops to be deployed to the nation’s capital, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Wednesday.
That request came despite an ongoing legal battle over whether the original National Guard deployment was legal. On Wednesday, the Trump administration also asked a federal appeals court for an emergency stay of last week’s order from a federal judge to remove the National Guard from Washington, DC.
Trump ramps up anti-immigration rhetoric
In a video address from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump blamed the Biden administration for bringing the alleged shooter to the US and argued the attack “underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation.”
Trump lamented what he described as “20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners” who entered the US during his predecessor’s administration, casting it as “a risk to our very survival.”
The president described the suspect as a “foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hell hole on earth.” In the same remarks, he also took aim at Somali immigrants living in Minnesota, claiming they are “ripping off our country and ripping apart that once-great state,” casting Somalia as a country that has “no laws, no water, no military, no nothing.”
Trump vowed to “re-examine every single alien who has entered our country under Biden,” a process that has already begun, as CNN reported earlier this week.
Shortly after Trump’s address, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it had stopped processing immigration cases related to Afghan immigrants “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”
“The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission,” the agency said in a statement on X.
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CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Kaanita Iyer, Taylor Galgano, Evan Perez, Holmes Lybrand, Gabe Cohen, Alejandra Jaramillo, Taylor Romine, Maureen Chowdhury, Dan Berman, Casey Gannon, Brian Todd, Tori B. Powell, Veronica Stracqualursi, John Miller, and Betsy Klein contributed reporting.
