Former CIA contractor Rahmanullah Lakanwal shoots two National Guard members blocks from White House, killing one

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, shot two ⛰️West Virginia National Guard members on Nov. 26, 2025, near the Farragut West metro station, two blocks from the White House. Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, from Summersville, West Virginia, died from her wounds on Nov. 27. Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, from Martinsburg, West Virginia, remains in critical condition after being shot in the head. The guardsmen were conducting high visibility patrols as part of Trump's Aug. 2025 federal takeover of 🏛️D.C. Lakanwal was shot four times and stabbed with a pocket knife by a guardsman during the attack. He faces first-degree murder charges and isn't cooperating with investigators.

Lakanwal worked for over a decade in a CIA-backed 'Zero Unit' of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security in Kandahar Province. These elite paramilitary units hunted Taliban commanders in highly dangerous night raids and were among the most extensively vetted Afghans working with U.S. forces. Human rights organizations accused Zero Units of possible war crimes, including extrajudicial executions. The CIA evacuated Lakanwal and nearly 10,000 Zero Unit members when the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in Aug. 2021. CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed Lakanwal's work with the agency but didn't address his mental health or post-service support.

Lakanwal entered the U.S. on Sept. 8, 2021, under Operation Allies Welcome, a humanitarian parole program for vulnerable Afghans. He applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted asylum in April 2025 during the Trump administration. Trump officials falsely claimed the Biden administration failed to vet Lakanwal. As a Zero Unit member, Lakanwal underwent extensive vetting before joining the unit, regular security checks during his tenure, and additional vetting when he applied for asylum. FBI Director KPKash Patel avoided answering when Lakanwal received asylum, while White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson blamed Biden for allowing 'unvetted criminals' into the country.

Lakanwal lived in Bellingham, 🌲Washington, with his wife and five children. Volunteers who worked with Afghan refugees in Washington told NPR that Lakanwal appeared lively and hopeful when he first arrived in 2022 but began isolating himself by 2023. He couldn't find steady work due to an expired work permit and poor English skills. By Jan. 2024, volunteers sent alarmed emails noting Lakanwal wasn't functional as a person, father or provider. He alternated between periods of dark isolation in his darkened room and taking sudden weeks-long cross-country drives without telling his family, roaming as far as Chicago and 🌵Arizona. Volunteers tried reaching World Relief and U.S. Committee for Refugees but got limited response.

Trump announced on Nov. 27, 2025, that he would 'permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries' and suspend all Afghan immigration processing. He ordered USCIS Director JEJoe Edlow to reexamine every green card for every alien from every country of concern. Trump said on Thanksgiving that most immigrants are 'from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels.' He asked if Lakanwal's wife and children should be deported, saying 'we're looking at that right now.' The White House blamed Biden for allowing 'countless unvetted criminals to invade our country' despite Lakanwal receiving asylum under Trump.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed on ABC's This Week that Lakanwal 'could have been radicalized in his home community, his home state' of 🌲Washington. The FBI is investigating the shooting as a potential act of international terrorism. FBI Director KPKash Patel said authorities are investigating Lakanwal's relationship with partner forces in Afghanistan and any known associates overseas or in the U.S. No evidence has been publicly released tying Lakanwal to a terrorist organization and no terror charges have been filed. Family members told authorities Lakanwal may suffer from PTSD from the fighting in Afghanistan.

Mohammad Shah, a former Afghan Zero Unit commander, wrote Congress in 2023 warning that his former troops are in 'urgent crisis' and Congress needed to act to resolve their legal status. Shah wrote that 'recently, there have been cases of suicide within our community driven by the overwhelming sentiment of helplessness we feel as our requests for immigration assistance go ignored by the U.S. Government.' Andrew Sullivan of No One Left Behind said Zero Unit members 'took malignant actors off the battlefield and saved American lives, period.' Volunteers described Lakanwal as experiencing a deepening personal crisis with no organized resources for refugees beyond their initial welcome.

The shooting intensified debate over Trump's Aug. 2025 deployment of 2,188 National Guard troops to 🏛️D.C. as part of his federal takeover of the city. Investigative journalist Jane Mayer called the deployment 'for political show and at what a cost.' White House communications director Steven Cheung told her to 'shut the fuck up.' Trump announced deployment of an additional 500 National Guard troops after the attack. Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund said the attack doesn't represent the city's values and noted 'they are the actions of one person and not a community.' The shooting became a political flashpoint with Republican politicians making anti-immigration statements calling to deport all 'Islamists.'