Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, drove his car for 42 hours from coast to coast of the United States with the intention of committing an attack. He traveled the nearly 4,500 kilometers that separate Bellingham, the city where he lived with his wife and five children, north of Seattle, and Washington with a .357-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver with six bullets in the chamber. Lakanwal is the man arrested by police after shooting and seriously injuring a West Virginian on Wednesday afternoon along with . Lakanwal has been charged with possession of a firearm and is charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.
Authorities believe Lakanwal, who acted alone, traveled with a plan in his head to launch the attack. Was . The capital was bustling, thousands of Americans were preparing to make their last purchases. It was 2:15 p.m. when the suspect crossed the corner of 17th Street and I Street, an area frequented by tourists and federal officials, given its proximity to the White House. A group of the National Guard was found, part of the deployment of troops ordered by to combat what it considers the “criminal emergency” in the capital. Seeing the soldiers, Lakanwal opened fire: one soldier was shot and fell to the ground. The aggressor leaned down to pull the trigger again against the downed soldier. He subsequently turned to wound another member of the army, before being arrested after an exchange of fire with other guards in which he was wounded.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, are the two National Guard volunteers who were injured in the shooting. They are in critical condition in the hospital and although they have undergone surgical interventions, their situation remains serious, according to the account given by the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, in a press conference with the director of the FBI, Kash Patel.
“Two uniformed guards were ambushed in a brazen and targeted attack, a lone gunman opened fire unprovoked, ambush style,” described Pirro, who has not provided details about the motives for the point-blank attack on members of the National Guard. “It’s too soon,” the prosecutor said when asked by journalists. “We are investigating different areas, but we are not ready to confirm it,” he added. Pirro added that the shooting has been considered a “selective attack.” Patel described the case as an “ongoing terrorism investigation,” without elaborating on his explanations.
Lakanwal was a CIA collaborator during the time of the fight against the Taliban, according to the authorities’ account. CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed that the detainee worked with . Ratcliffe did not detail Lakanwal’s role in that period.
Sources cited by The New York Times They explain that the detainee served in Kandahar in Units Zero, companies of the Afghan intelligence service. These were paramilitary forces trained to carry out night raids against suspected Taliban targets. They were known as death squads for their cruel and ruthless methods and have been accused of widespread killings of civilians by human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch.
The American newspaper points out that a childhood friend of the detainee revealed that he suffered from mental health problems and that he was traumatized by the operations in which he participated in Afghanistan. He insists he was unstable and frequently smoked marijuana.
Lakanwal arrived in the United States in 2021. Joe Biden’s Government had launched a project to not leave the Afghans who had collaborated with the army in the hands of the Taliban. The reception program, known as Operation Welcome to Allies, allowed nearly 76,000 Afghans to be repatriated to the United States for humanitarian reasons, according to The New York Times. Nearly a thousand refugees were moved to Whatcom County, in the northwest of the country, near Bellingham. World Relief, a humanitarian organization that helps refugees during their first 90 days in the United States, is based there.
Terrorism charges
Attorney General Pam Bondi said this Thursday in an interview on Fox News that the Department of Justice intends to charge Lakanwal with terrorism crimes, for which he could face a sentence of life in prison. The attorney general explained that the charges will depend on whether any of the victims die as a result of their gunshot wounds. “We will do everything possible to request the death penalty,” he said.
FBI Director Kash Patel explained that the agency has interviewed several witnesses and is investigating several locations in the capital and in various places on the West Coast. “During the searches, we have seized numerous electronic devices, including mobile phones, laptops, iPads and other materials that are currently being analyzed,” he commented.
Trump made an extraordinary appearance Wednesday night to comment on the attack. From his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, in a speech with xenophobic overtones, he accused Biden, his predecessor, of the tragedy, criminalized immigrants and blatantly exaggerated the number of refugees who entered during the Democrat’s presidency. “Now we must re-examine each of the foreigners who entered our country from Afghanistan,” he said.
“The animal that shot the two national guardsmen, both seriously injured and now in separate hospitals, is also seriously injured, but, despite everything, it will pay a very high price,” the president wrote on his social network, Truth, just before news of the event spread. “May God bless our Great National Guard and all of our Armed and Law Enforcement Forces. They are truly extraordinary people.”
In response to the shooting, the US president on Wednesday ordered the sending of another contingent of 500 members of the National Guard to Washington. Some 2,300 troops have been deployed in the capital since last summer by virtue of an executive order issued by Trump, under the justification of combating the capital’s high crime rates, despite the fact that crime figures in the city are the lowest in 30 years. Members of the National Guard are also participating in anti-immigrant raids.
The presence of the National Guard in some cities governed by Democrats. The opposition sees it as an exercise in intimidation and abuse of power, because in theory soldiers have no jurisdiction in the cities. The mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, expressed her rejection of the deployment of the uniformed personnel. “These young people should be at home, in West Virginia, with their families,” he declared.
Last week, , decided that the Trump Administration could not maintain the deployment of the National Guard in Washington, after the local government appealed the president’s order in court. Cobb put his ruling on hold for three weeks to give the White House time to withdraw troops and appeal the decision. After the tragic event this Wednesday, the Executive asked Cobb to rescind his decision.
