Two national guard members shot on Wednesday in Washington DC are in critical condition. Here’s what we know so far:
At 2.15pm on Wednesday, a man is alleged to have launched what Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, has called an “ambush-style” gun attack two blocks north-west of the White House on two members of the West Virginia national guard.
The guard members – named as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, both newly sworn-in – are currently hospitalized in critical condition.
The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, was shot at the scene by a third guard member and is being treated in hospital after being arrested. His wounds are not believed to be life-threatening.
Lakanwal faces charges of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, though if the national guard members die, the charges could be upgraded to first-degree murder.
His motives remain unclear: Pirro has said that “it’s too soon to say” and Jeffery Carroll, an executive assistant DC police chief, said that investigators had no information on a motive and the suspect “came around the corner” and immediately started firing at the troops.
He had driven across the US from the home he shares with his wife and five children in Bellingham, Washington state, allegedly to conduct the attack.
He is believed to have acted alone.
Lakanwal worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, and came to the US in 2021 as part of a program to resettle Afghans who had aided US operations there. The CIA director, John Ratcliffe, said Lakanwal was “a member of a partner force in Kandahar”.
The Trump administration has responded to the shooting by ordering 500 more national guard members to Washington, and calling for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who entered under the Biden administration.
US citizenship and immigration services also said it has stopped processing all immigration requests for Afghan nationals “pending further review of security and vetting protocols”.
