Afghan national accused of shooting guards ‘drove across US to carry out attack’

An Afghan national has been accused of shooting two West Virginia National Guard members close to the White House.

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said at a Thursday news briefing that the guard members shot were Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24.

Ms Pirro said the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, drove across the country to launch an “ambush-style” attack with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver.

The suspect currently faces charges of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. Ms Pirro said that “it’s too soon to say” what the suspect’s motives were.

The charges could be upgraded, Ms Pirro said, adding: “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.”

Law enforcement officials told the Associated Press that the suspect in custody was an Afghan national who entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration programme which evacuated and resettled Afghans after the US withdrawal from the country.

FBI director Kash Patel said the shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism. Agents have served a series of search warrants, with Mr Patel calling it a “coast-to-coast investigation”.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser interpreted the shooting as a direct assault on America itself, rather than specifically on President Donald Trump’s policies.

“Somebody drove across the country and came to Washington DC to attack America,” Ms Bower said. “That person will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Lakanwal was shot and has wounds that are not believed to be life-threatening.

Lakanwal arrived in Bellingham, Washington, about 79 miles (127 kilometres) north of Seattle, with his wife and five children, said his former landlord, Kristina Widman.

Prior to his 2021 arrival in the United States, the suspect worked with the US government, including the CIA, “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar”, John Ratcliffe, the spy agency’s director, said in a statement.

He did not specify what work Lakanwal did, but said the relationship “ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation” of US servicemembers from Afghanistan.

Kandahar in southern Afghanistan is in the Taliban heartland of the country. It saw fierce fighting between the Taliban and Nato forces after the US-led invasion in 2001 following the al Qaida attacks on September 11.

The CIA relied on Afghan staff for translation, administrative and frontline fighting with their own paramilitary officers in the war.

Mr Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who entered under the Biden administration.

In a video message released on social media on Wednesday night, Mr Trump said: “If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them.”

He called the shooting a “heinous assault” and “a crime against our entire nation” and said it “proves that lax migration policies are “the single greatest national security threat facing our nation”.

“No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival,” he said.

Mr Trump described Afghanistan as “a hellhole on earth” and he said his administration would review everyone who entered from the country under President Joe Biden – a measure his administration had already been planning before the incident.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would indefinitely stop processing all immigration requests for Afghan nationals pending a review of security and vetting protocols.

During his remarks, Mr Trump also swung his focus to Minnesota, where he complained about “hundreds of thousands of Somalians” who are “ripping apart that once-great state”.

The Trump administration quickly ordered 500 more National Guard members to Washington. Defence secretary Pete Hegseth said Mr Trump asked him to send the troops.

Nearly 2,200 troops are assigned to the joint task force operating in the city, according to the government’s latest update.

The Operation Allies Welcome initiative brought roughly 76,000 people to the US, many of whom had worked alongside US troops and diplomats as interpreters and translators.

It has since faced intense scrutiny from Mr Trump and his allies, congressional Republicans and some government watchdogs over gaps in the vetting process and the speed of admissions, even as advocates say it offered a lifeline to people at risk of Taliban reprisals.

Jeffery Carroll, an executive assistant Washington police chief, said investigators had no information on a motive.

He said the assailant “came around the corner” and immediately started firing at the troops roughly two blocks northwest of the White House, citing video reviewed by investigators.

Hearing gunfire, other troops in the area ran over and held down the gunman after he was shot, he said.

“It appears to be a lone gunman that raised a firearm and ambushed these members of the National Guard,” Mr Carroll said, adding that it was not clear whether one of the guard members or a law enforcement officer shot the suspect.

“At this point we have no other suspects.”

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey initially said the troops had died, but he later walked that statement back to say his office was “receiving conflicting reports” about their condition.

General Steven Nordhaus, chief of the National Guard Bureau, scrapped plans to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with troops at Guantanamo Bay in order to travel to Washington and be with guard members there instead.