{"id":173339,"date":"2025-11-27T05:12:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T05:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/suspect-in-national-guard-shooting-served-alongside-u-s-troops-in-afghanistan-relative-says-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T05:12:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T05:12:18","slug":"suspect-in-national-guard-shooting-served-alongside-u-s-troops-in-afghanistan-relative-says-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/suspect-in-national-guard-shooting-served-alongside-u-s-troops-in-afghanistan-relative-says-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect in National Guard shooting served alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan, relative says – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
The suspect in the Washington, D.C., shooting that critically wounded two National Guard members<\/a> 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.
Follow live updates<\/strong><\/em><\/a>
A relative of Lakanwal\u2019s 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.
\u201cWe were the ones that were targeted by the Taliban in Afghanistan,\u201d he said.
\u201cI cannot believe it that he might do this,\u201d 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<\/a>, which led to the Taliban takeover of the country.<\/a>
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. The last time they spoke, Lakanwal was working for Amazon and Amazon Flex.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.
\u201cI don\u2019t know what happened,\u201d the relative said, his voice cracking with emotion. He added: \u201cI need your help to know why this happened.\u201d
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem<\/a> said on X that the suspect was \u201cone of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration.\u201d Operation Allies Welcome<\/a> was a Biden-era directive to support \u201cvulnerable Afghans\u201d and those who worked alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan to safely resettle in the United States.
In remarks Wednesday, President Donald Trump said he is \u201cdetermined\u201d that the shooter \u201cpays the steepest possible price.\u201d
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.
The suspect has been identified as an Afghan national who used a handgun, according to two senior U.S. law enforcement officials.
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 \u201cthis individual\u2019s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.\u201d
Late Wednesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said processing of immigration requests related to Afghan nationals \u201cis stopped indefinitely<\/a> pending further review of security and vetting protocols.\u201d
Rich Schapiro is a reporter with the NBC News national security unit.
Courtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeThe 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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}