DC National Guard shooting suspect once served alongside US troops in Afghanistan, relative claims

WASHINGTON, DC: Chaos erupted in the nation's capital just after 2.15 pm on Wednesday, November 26, when gunfire cracked through the streets only a stone’s throw from the White House. 

Two members of the West Virginia National Guard were shot in broad daylight. According to four senior law enforcement sources, the suspect was identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national. 

Investigators say Lakanwal opened fire on two National Guard members who were on patrol, critically wounding both. Officials labeled the incident a targeted shooting, though the motive remains a mystery. Officers fired back and immobilized Lakanwal, who now sits in a hospital bed under guard.

According to a relative, however, the suspected gunman wasn’t just any recent arrival. He was someone who spent a decade in the Afghan army, serving shoulder-to-shoulder with US Special Forces.

Relative says suspect was stationed at a base in Kandahar 

A relative who allegedly served alongside him in Afghanistan told NBC News that Rahmanullah Lakanwal arrived in the United States in September 2021, following then-President Joe Biden’s chaotic withdrawal of American forces. 

Lakanwal grew up in the Khost province and wore the Afghan army uniform for a decade, the relative said, working with US troops and spending part of his tenure stationed at a base in Kandahar. The family member said they were embedded together.

“We were the ones that were targeted by the Taliban in Afghanistan,” he said. “I cannot believe it, that he might do this.”

Lakanwal had built a new life in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five children, the relative said. That same relative last spoke with him months ago, back when Lakanwal was working shifts at Amazon and Amazon Flex.

“I don’t know what happened,” the relative said, adding, “I need your help to know why this happened.”

Trump calls shooting an 'act of terror'

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the suspect was “one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration.”

The program aimed to help “vulnerable Afghans,” including those who served alongside US forces, safely resettle in the US after Kabul collapsed.

Speaking on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said he is “determined” that the shooter “pays the steepest possible price.”

Trump said the Biden administration flew Lakanwal into the US in 2021 and extended his status through later legislation. The president called for a top-to-bottom reexamination of every Afghan who entered the country under Biden.

He called the shooting an “act of terror,” adding, “It was a crime against our entire nation. It was a crime against humanity.” 

Community pushes back as feds take action

Afghan advocates urged Americans not to turn one man’s alleged actions into a smear campaign. Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, issued a statement claiming that Afghans who resettle here undergo extensive vetting. “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” he said.

But by Wednesday night, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that all immigration processing tied to Afghan nationals “is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”