THE WASHINGTON POST: Rahmanullah Lakanwal, Afghani who had worked with CIA faces multiple charges in DC ambush

An Afghan national who previously worked with the CIA faces multiple criminal charges after federal authorities said he drove across the country and shot two National Guard members - one fatally - in an ambush Wednesday afternoon near the White House.

The shooting, which came months into the Guard’s deployment in the District at President Donald Trump’s behest, has sparked an intense, international investigation into the motive of the alleged gunman, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal of Bellingham, Washington, who came to the United States in September 2021 after working for a CIA-organised counterterrorism squad.

Lakanwal, who was detained moments after the shooting, was part of one of the US government’s “Zero Units” that were involved in combat missions to seize or kill suspected terrorists, according to several people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly discuss details of the investigation.

Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for DC, said at a news conference Thursday that Lakanwal came to the nation’s capital to commit what officials called a “targeted attack,” shooting two West Virginia National Guard members - Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24.

In a call with service members Thursday night, Mr Trump said Spec. Beckstrom had died after being “savagely” attacked. Staff-Sgt Wolfe, he said, was still fighting for his life.

Earlier in the day, Ms Pirro had reported that both members were in critical condition after undergoing surgeries. The victims had been in the nation’s capital since August, when Mr Trump deployed troops alongside federal law enforcement officers to quell violence in the city amid what he called a “crime emergency.”

Staff-Sgt Wolfe, from Martinsburg, began his service with the West Virginia Air National Guard in 2019, officials said. Spec. Beckstrom, from Summersville, began serving with the West Virginia Army National Guard in 2023.

The US attorney’s office said prosecutors had charged Lakanwal with three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, though Ms Pirro promised that she would bring first-degree murder charges if either victim died. It was not immediately clear Thursday if authorities had brought additional charges in the wake of Spec. Beckstrom’s death.

Standing alongside Ms Pirro and DC Mayor Muriel E. Bowser at Thursday’s news conference, FBI Director Kash Patel said the investigation into Lakanwal is sprawling and involves multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Department of Homeland Security; and DC police. The firearm used in the attack was sent to the FBI’s lab in Quantico, Virginia, Patel said, for “immediate analysis.”

“We will not stop until we interview anyone and everyone associated with the subject, the house and every piece of his life,” Mr Patel said.

Authorities said that police executed multiple search warrants around the country immediately after the shooting, including of the suspect’s apartment in Washington. All of the people who were found in the home were interviewed, officials said.

Neighbours interviewed Thursday in Bellingham, which is located in the far northwest corner of the state, said that Lakanwal had lived with his wife and five children in a second-floor unit in the apartment building for about a year. Several neighbours said they had little contact with Lakanwal but would see him in passing, often coming home late at night. They described him as polite.

Those at the apartment complex said they heard banging noises on Wednesday evening when authorities entered Lakanwal’s apartment. There were visible cracks on the door Thursday morning, and Katrina Denning, 48, said she saw a truck and men in FBI jackets outside the complex.

Another neighbour, Mohammed Sherzad, who is also from Afghanistan, said Lakanwal was Pushtan. The two attended the same nearby mosque, he said, and their children attended elementary school together. He said he hadn’t seen Lakanwal in recent weeks.

“This is so scary for everybody,” Mr Sherzad said.

Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund said in a statement Thursday that she would direct local resources to support the FBI’s investigation.

“The terrible actions committed in Washington, DC yesterday are the actions of one person, not a community,” she said.

“They don’t represent Bellingham’s values.”

In the hours after the shooting, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that he had conveyed a request from Mr Trump to send 500 additional National Guard members to the District, where local officials and residents have questioned the use of military troops on American soil. At the start of the week, there were 2,188 National Guard troops assigned to the DC mission - 925 DC National Guard members and 1,263 from other states, including 180 from West Virginia, according to the joint task force.

Few National Guard troops were observed patrolling Thursday, though it was not clear if that related to the shooting or was a result of the Thanksgiving holiday. Pedestrians apologised to a group of four National Guard members and a DC police officer as they patrolled near Indiana Avenue and Seventh Street in Northwest Washington, Thursday morning.

At Thursday’s news conference, Cr Bowser said the Guard members were “young people” who “should be at home in West Virginia with their families.” She said that “somebody drove across the country, came to Washington, DC, to attack America, and that person will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The two National Guard members were patrolling Wednesday afternoon along a busy corridor near the White House complex just outside the Farragut West Metro stop in downtown Washington when, Ms Pirro said, the “gunman opened fire without provocation, ambush-style, armed with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver” and shot one Guard member.

That person fell to the ground, she said, and then the shooter leaned over and struck the Guard member again. Another Guard member, she said, was also “struck several times.”

Additional Guard members who responded to the attack then shot the gunman before he was subdued at the scene. The alleged gunman was transported to a hospital, where Ms Pirro said he “remains under heavy guard.” She did not share further details on his condition.

The two service members were shot less than 24 hours after both of them had been deputised to maintain their status to conduct those security patrols, the National Guard’s Joint Task Force-DC said in a statement to The Washington Post.

Lakanwal’s vehicle was recovered overnight in downtown DC, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly about it.

Mr Patel described the case as a “heinous act of terrorism” but provided no additional details or information about what led him to describe the attack that way. Ms Pirro said it was too soon to provide a motive for the shooting, but said “there are definitely areas that we’re looking into.”

Spec. Beckstrom joined the Army National Guard as a teen, the same month she graduated high school, according to social media posts from her family. Staff-Sgt Wolfe was serving in the unit’s 167th Force Support Squadron as a personnel and human resources specialist. He joined the West Virginia National Guard in 2019 and earned multiple awards.

Mr Patel said he had spoken to CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Mr Hegseth on Wednesday night and had confirmed that Lakanwal had a “relationship with Afghanistan with partner forces.” He said that “we are fully investigating that aspect of his background as well, to include any known associates that are either overseas or here” in the United States.

Details of Lakanwal’s specific role and service with the CIA are not yet known, beyond the fact that he was posted in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

The Zero Units, also known as National Strike Units, were involved in dangerous and often deadly night raids and other missions to kill or capture members of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terrorist groups. The CIA and US military provided intelligence and logistical support to the squads. The CIA has never publicly acknowledged its work with the Zero Units.

Lakanwal and other Afghan paramilitary members would have undergone extensive vetting before joining the Zero Units and were supposed to be monitored closely once in service, people familiar with the matter said.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said Lakanwal first came to the US as part of Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program created to help resettle Afghan nationals after the chaotic US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

The Trump administration paused all immigration requests from Afghan nationals after the shooting. On Thursday, Mr Trump ordered US Citizenship and Immigration Services to re-examine status of green-card holders “from every country of concern,” referencing 19 countries - such as Venezuela and Haiti - that his administration documented in a June executive order.

At Thursday’s news conference, Brigadier General Leland D. Blanchard II, who is serving as the commanding general of the DC National Guard, said the attack had made the city, the National Guard and the task force “more committed” to the “President’s directive to make DC safe and beautiful.”

“Our resolve will be tested,” he said. “It is being tested, but make no mistake, each and every one of these soldiers and airmen will meet and exceed the expectation that we have for them.”

DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb (D) has sued the Trump administration over the deployment - and secured a preliminary win in US District Court last week, when a judge ordered the administration to cease the mission on December 11, barring intervention by a higher court. The Trump administration filed a notice to the court earlier this week that it planned to appeal the ruling, and on Wednesday filed another emergency motion seeking to prevent the mission from being halted.

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