Who Is Rahmanullah Lakanwal? What We Know About Suspected D.C. National Guard Shooter

Last week, on Nov. 26, a gunman reportedly ambushed two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., killing one Guard commander and injuring another member. The man suspected of carrying out this shooting is 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal.

Here’s what we know about him so far.

According to ABC News, Lakanwal, who has a wife, five children, and a brother in the U.S., came into the country by plane from Afghanistan in 2021, during the Biden administration. He applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted it in April, under the Trump administration. The Guard members he’s accused of shooting are 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant, and 20-year-old National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, who ultimately died from her injuries.

Wolfe and Beckstrom were conducting “high visibility patrols” at the time of the attack, according to law enforcement officials. They reported that Lakanwal drove from his residence in Washington state to the nation’s capital to carry out the attack. Before it was announced that Beckstrom had died, federal officials, including Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said the alleged shooter would be charged with three counts of assault with the intent to kill while armed and criminal possession of a weapon. Now, he’ll also face a charge of first-degree murder, Pirro says.

So, now, the big question is why Lakanwal would carry out this shooting, especially considering his background as an ally to the U.S. in its counterterrorism efforts.

From ABC:

The suspect previously worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, “which ended in 2021 following the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” according to CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

In Afghanistan, the suspect was involved with the Zero Unit, working closely with the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The suspect was a trusted member of that team, which went after U.S. counterterrorism targets, according to sources.

It’s worth noting that, despite the fact that Lakanwal was granted asylum by the Trump administration, President Donald Trump immediately sought to blame former President Joe Biden and his administration for the shooting, and, like clockwork, his followers have followed suit, with some falsely describing the alleged shooter as an “illegal Afghan alien.”

These days, it has become the default for Americans, especially white Americans, to start arguing back and forth about what ideology a domestic terrorist adhered to, and which president or political party is most responsible for it, so people are spreading misinformation about Lakanwal being “unvetted” and arguing about which president takes the blame. In truth, Lakanwal’s background would present him as an ally to the U.S., which means no amount of vetting would likely have predicted the shooting.

Of course, the Trump administration is conveniently and predictably ignoring the facts surrounding Lakanwal’s background. According to Rolling Stone, the administration has claimed repeatedly that Lakanwal and other refugees were “unvetted” or subject to “zero vetting,” and that they were “mass paroled into the United States.”

“This individual — and so many others — should have never been allowed to come here,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said. “Our citizens and servicemembers deserve far better than to endure the ongoing fallout from the Biden administration’s catastrophic failures.”

Again, they’re not just ignoring the suspect’s previous relationship with the CEI; they’re also ignoring who granted him asylum.

So now, we’re back to the why and what investigators have come up with so far.

More from ABC:

As investigators continue to delve into what may have motivated the suspect in the deadly National Guardsmen shooting last week, a portrait of a life of increasing financial stress and a potential mental health crisis has emerged, sources familiar told ABC News.  

Additionally, multiple sources said that investigators are looking into the impact of the recent death of an Afghan commander, who allegedly worked with the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal.

The death of the commander — whom Lakanwal is said to have revered — had deeply saddened the suspect, sources said.

This may have compounded on Lakanwal’s financial burdens, including not being employed, having an expired work permit and allegedly struggling to pay rent and feed his children, sources said.

“He’s very sad,” a fellow Zero Unit member told Rolling Stone of Lakanwal, who felt abandoned by the CIA, according to his unit mate. “He’s very worried. This problem, like, he’d say, ‘I am working nine years or 10 years with [the] U.S. government. [They] never answer my phone [call].’”

Obviously, nothing would excuse the act of shooting troops, especially if those troops had nothing to do with what motivated the shooter. Still, Lakanwal’s background and possible motivations for the attack make this case far less simplistic than many might want to believe it is. MAGA supporters, especially, want this to be a simple case of a violent “illegal” committing an act of anti-American terrorism after being let in by the Biden administration, but this story appears to be nuanced, and they don’t have the time or patience for all that.

We’ll all just have to stay tuned to see what is revealed next.

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