The suspected shooter of two national guard members in Washington DC on Wednesday worked with CIA-backed military units during the US war in Afghanistan, the agency has confirmed.
The alleged gunman, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, came to the US in September 2021 under an Operation Allies Welcome program that gave some Afghans who had worked for the US government entry visas to the US.
Lakanwal’s ties to the Central Intelligence Agency, which worked alongside US special forces in Afghanistan, were confirmed by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, to media outlets on Wednesday evening.
The New York Times reported that the shooting suspect had worked for several US government agencies in Afghanistan, including a CIA-backed unit in the southern province of Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban.
“The Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US government, including CIA,” Ratcliffe told Fox News digital, adding that Lakanwal’s involvement with the agency was “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation”.
The two wounded guard members have been named as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24. Both are members of the West Virginia national guard and are listed in critical condition.
They had both been sworn into service less than 24 hours before they were ambushed at a bus stop by the suspect.
Beckstrom’s father told the New York Times in a phone call that his daughter was unlikely to recover. “I’m holding her hand right now,” Gary Beckstrom said. “She has a mortal wound. It’s not going to be a recovery.”
A man reached at the family home of Wolfe, told a reporter at the outlet: “All we need right now are prayers for my son.”
Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for Washington DC, said at a news conference Thursday that the suspect had used a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver, shooting one guard member twice before turning to fire at the second.
She said the two wounded national guards had “put their lives on the line to protect people they don’t even know”.
Other national guard members at the scene had engaged and neutralized the suspect, she said.
The suspect is under arrest and being treated at hospital.
Pirro said he drove across the US from his home in Bellingham, Washington, with a plan to conduct what she called a “brazen and targeted” assault.
The prosecutor said Lakanwal would be charged with three counts of a assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. Pirro said that if the national guard members do not survive, then charges could be increased to murder in the first degree.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, told the news conference the agency is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. Law enforcement agencies had executed search warrants at the suspect’s home in Washington and in San Diego, California.
“This is a coast-to-coast investigation,” Patel said.
The mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, who has criticized the Trump administration’s deployment of national guard in the district, said: “These young people should be at home in West Virginia with their families.”
Patel also confirmed the suspect’s relationship with US forces in Afghanistan. The investigation, he said, would include any known associates of the suspect overseas and in the US.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services said after the shooting that it has stopped processing residency applications from Afghan nationals.
“Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” the agency said on social media.
Following the shooting, Donald Trump ordered 500 additional national guard troops to Washington. The president described the shooting as an “act of terror” and called immigration “the single greatest national security threat facing our nation”.
