The suspect in the Washington, D.C., shooting that critically wounded two National Guard members was an Afghan national who served alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan, officials and a relative say.
The suspect, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, according to four senior law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation, opened fire at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday a short distance from the White House, striking two National Guard members who were on patrol.
The suspect was also shot in the incident and is hospitalized, authorities said.
Officials have said it was a targeted shooting.
A relative of Lakanwal’s said he arrived in the United States in September 2021 after having served in the Afghan army for 10 years alongside U.S. Special Forces troops. Lakanwal was stationed at a base in Kandahar for part of the time he served in the army, the relative said.
The relative who spoke with NBC News served with Lakanwal, supporting U.S. troops.
“We were the ones that were targeted by the Taliban in Afghanistan,” he said.
“I cannot believe it that he might do this,” the relative added.
Lakanwal came to the United States five months after then-President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which led to the Taliban takeover of the country.
The Central Intelligence Agency said Thursday that he worked with a CIA-backed military unit during the war in Afghanistan.
“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 U.S. Government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation,” Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement.
Lakanwal, who grew up in Khost province, was living in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five children, the relative said.
The relative said he has not spoken to Lakanwal in several months.
“I don’t know what happened,” the relative said, his voice cracking with emotion. He added: “I need your help to know why this happened.”
The last time they spoke, Lakanwal was working for Amazon and Amazon Flex, the relative said.
Amazon told NBC News that Lakanwal wasn’t an employee of Amazon, but was an independent contractor for Amazon Flex and has not been active recently.
Amazon Flex is a delivery service run by Amazon where people use their own vehicles to make deliveries as contract workers, similar to the arrangement Uber has with its drivers.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X 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.” Operation Allies Welcome was a Biden-era directive to support “vulnerable Afghans” and those who worked alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan to safely resettle in the United States.
A source familiar with the case and a separate law enforcement source told NBC News that the suspect was granted asylum this year under the Trump administration. The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to requests for comment on the granting of Lakanwal's asylum application.
In remarks Wednesday, President Donald Trump said he is “determined” that the shooter “pays the steepest possible price.”
Trump said that the suspect was flown into the United States by the Biden administration in September 2021 and that his status was extended under Biden-era legislation. Trump then called for the re-examination of all those who entered the United States from Afghanistan during the Biden administration.
Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based group AfghanEvac, said in a statement that Afghan immigrants and wartime allies who resettle in the United States undergo extensive security vetting and that “this individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.”
Late Wednesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said processing of immigration requests related to Afghan nationals “is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”
