Officials are reportedly investigating whether the Taliban blackmailed National Guard shooting suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal into carrying out the attack near the White House last week which killed one soldier and seriously wounded another.
Lakanwal, who was arrested after allegedly opening fire on Guard troops outside the Farragut West Metro station, is an Afghan national who served in U.S.-backed forces battling the Taliban in his home country.
Investigators are probing whether threats against his remaining family in Afghanistan were used to coerce him into carrying out the shooting.
“It is by no means our only line of inquiry,” an intelligence source told The Daily Beast. “People in this country have no idea about the level of stress these people are under. Most of them have families back home, and if the Taliban cannot get to them, they are making it very clear that they will go after their families.”
Lakanwal, 29, was vetted multiple times before settling in the U.S. He came to the country in 2021 under a Biden administration program resettling Afghans, including those who worked with U.S. forces. The Trump administration granted Lakanwal asylum this year.
Prosecutors accuse the 29-year-old of driving across the country in a Hyundai sedan from his home in Washington state and using a .357-caliber revolver to fire on U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, who later died of her injuries, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, who remains in critical condition.
A supervisor was speaking with the Guard troops when the shots broke out and said he heard Lakanwal yell out “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” officials say.
The supervisor returned fire, striking Lakanwal, who was subdued and arrested, according to prosecutors.
Police, National Guard troops, and Secret Service agents with long guns soon swarmed the scene of the shooting, which took place at a busy metro station just blocks from the White House.
Prior to the alleged attack, Lakanwal reportedly worked as a delivery driver in Bellingham, Washington, to support his wife and five children, while suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Others who aided the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan have faced retribution around the world, including an Afghan special forces fighter whose family was killed by the Taliban after he fled the country to Germany, the intelligence source told The Daily Beast.
The Independent has contacted the Washington, D.C., police department, the Justice Department, and the FBI for comment on the investigation into Lakanwal, who is charged with first-degree murder and could face the death penalty.
On Tuesday, he made his first appearance in court on a video feed from a hospital bed and pleaded not guilty.
His next court appearance is in January.
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Following the shooting, the Trump administration vowed to “permanently pause” migration from all “third world” countries, and has since paused all pending asylum decisions and halted all immigration applications from 19 countries, selection nations that were already under travel restrictions.
The administration is considering expanding the ban to 32 countries.
National Guard troops have been in Washington this summer, and the shooting prompted the Trump administration to order an additional deployment of 500 people there.
