National Guard Shooting : Who is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, Suspect Who Shot 2 National Guards Near White House?

27th November 2025 at 3:16 PM

1 minute read

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, has been identified as the suspect who opened fire on two National Guard soldiers near the White House on Wednesday.

New York : Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, has been identified as the suspect who opened fire on two National Guard soldiers near the White House on Wednesday. The two guardsmen were hospitalised in critical condition, according to FBI Director Kash Patel and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who described the incident as a “targeted shooting.”

Jeffery Carroll, an executive assistant chief with the Metropolitan Police Department, said the attack appeared sudden and deliberate. Lakanwal arrived in the United States in September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, the program through which USCIS expedited asylum applications for Afghan nationals following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Ratcliffe confirmed that Lakanwal served as part of a partner force in Kandahar alongside US troops, adding that US authorities had accepted him into the country under the 2021 resettlement programme by the Biden administration. In the wake of the disastrous Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation, Ratcliffe said.

We were the ones targeted by the Taliban in Afghanistan,” the relative was quoted as saying by NBC News. I cannot believe he might do this. The relative, who was also injured while supporting US troops, added tearfully, “I don’t know what happened I need your help to know why this happened. According to a report in the New York Post, Lakanwal reportedly lay in wait near the Farragut West Metro Station in Northwest Washington DC, around 2.15 pm. He allegedly opened fire on a female National Guard soldier, first hitting her in the chest and then in the head.

He then reportedly aimed at a second guard before a third nearby soldier intervened and subdued him. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey initially said in a post on X that both victims were members of his state’s National Guard and had died from their injuries. But he soon posted a second statement that cited “conflicting reports” about their condition.