Two West Virginia National Guard members are in critical condition after being shot Wednesday afternoon less than two blocks from the White House, in what Mayor Muriel Bowser described as a “targeted shooting.”
Authorities said a lone suspect opened fire on the guardsmen before being subdued by other National Guard personnel nearby, who had heard the gunfire.
The suspect has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.
President Donald Trump condemned the attack, calling it a “heinous assault” and “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror.”
Trump in a video message said, “I can report tonight that based on the best available information, the Department of Homeland Security is confident that the suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan — a hell hole on earth.”
He said the suspect is believed to be from Afghanistan and entered the United States in 2021.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X that the suspect was “mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration.”
The shooting comes amid legal challenges over the deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.
The Trump administration has requested an emergency stay from a federal appeals court after a judge ruled last week that the Guard’s deployment was unlawful. Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident as the guardsmen remain hospitalized, and security measures around the White House have been reinforced.
Kristi Noem followed Trump’s lead, mentioning the DC shooting suspect’s nationality and former President Joe Biden’s immigration policies in relation to today’s violent incident.
“The suspect who shot our brave National Guardsmen is an Afghan national who was one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration,” Noem wrote on X. “I will not utter this depraved individual’s name. He should be starved of the glory he so desperately wants.”
She praised National Guard members and said she and her husband “will be praying hard” for the shooting victims, their families and other members of law enforcement.
