Who is the DC National Guardsmen shooting suspect? What to know about Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, has been identified arsenic the gunman accused of shooting 2 National Guard members conscionable blocks from the White House connected the time earlier Thanksgiving, instrumentality enforcement sources told Fox News Digital.

Lakanwal was taken into custody Wednesday, portion authorities said some Guard members were successful captious condition. Officials said the shooting is being investigated arsenic a imaginable enactment of international terrorism.

More details astir Lakanwal person dilatory travel to airy successful the hours aft the shooting.

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Members of the National Guard stitchery aft reports of 2 National Guard soldiers being changeable adjacent the White House connected Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Pathway to the US

Lakanwal entered the U.S. legally successful 2021 nether humanitarian parole arsenic portion of the Biden administration's Operation Allies Welcome, pursuing the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover of the country. The cognition aimed to enactment and resettle susceptible Afghans, including those that had helped U.S. troops successful the past. 

The fishy reportedly had his asylum exertion approved during the Trump administration.

Intelligence sources told Fox News Digital that Lakanwal had a anterior narration with assorted entities successful the U.S. government, including the CIA, owed to his enactment arsenic a subordinate of a spouse unit successful Kandahar.

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"In the aftermath of the disastrous Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden medication justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States successful September 2021 owed to his anterior enactment with the U.S. government, including CIA, arsenic a subordinate of a spouse unit successful Kandahar, which ended soon pursuing the chaotic evacuation," CIA Director John Ratcliffe told Fox News Digital.

Streets are blocked aft reports of 2 National Guard soldiers being changeable adjacent the White House successful Washington, D.C., connected Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

LIFE IN THE US

Lakanwal had been surviving successful Washington state, 2 instrumentality enforcement officials and a idiosyncratic acquainted with the substance told The Associated Press.

His erstwhile landlord, Kristina Widman, told the outlet that Lakamal arrived successful Bellingham, Wash., astir 4 years agone with his woman and 5 children.

How helium traveled the astir 2,500 miles to Washington, D.C., up of Wednesday's shooting remains unclear.

How the shooting unfolded

Jeffery Carroll, an enforcement adjunct D.C. constabulary chief, said investigators reviewed video that shows the attacker "came astir the corner" and instantly started firing astatine the Guardsmen. Other Guardsmen ran implicit and tackled the shooter, and helium was taken into custody. Investigators judge helium was the lone gunman.

Emergency unit stitchery successful a cordoned-off country wherever National Guard soldiers were changeable adjacent the White House connected Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

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Carroll said it remains unclear whether a Guardsman oregon a responding serviceman changeable the suspect. He said nary motive has been established.

The alleged gunman was "severely wounded" earlier being taken into custody, President Donald Trump posted to his Truth Social relationship Wednesday afternoon.

Trump aboriginal said the "heinous assault" was an "act of evil and [an] enactment of hatred and an enactment of terror. It was a transgression against our full nation. It was a transgression against humanity."

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called the onslaught a "targeted shooting."

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Officials did not instantly supply updates connected the grade of the injuries to the Guardsmen oregon the suspect.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Emma Bussey contributed to this report.