Two West Virginia National Guardsmen are in crucial situation after a gunman opened fire near the White House on the day earlier than Thanksgiving, in an assault that’s added gasoline to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The suspect in the shooting has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who officers say got here to the US in 2021 beneath a program carried out by the Biden administration in the wake of the US navy withdrawal from Afghanistan. The suspect was additionally wounded and brought to the hospital, authorities stated.
Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser described the assault as a “targeted shooting.” Earlier, Vice President JD Vance stated the motive behind the shooting was nonetheless unknown.
Trump referred to as the shooting an “act of terror” in remarks from his membership in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. The president referred to as for a reexamination of each particular person from Afghanistan who got here to the US beneath President Joe Biden, and railed towards what he claimed are tens of millions of “unknown and unvetted foreigners” admitted to the nation beneath his predecessor.
Here’s what we know concerning the shooting, the suspect and the response:
Lakanwal arrived in the US on September 8, 2021 as a part of a program referred to as Operation Allies Welcome, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated Wednesday evening.
Biden launched this system in August 2021 to guard weak Afghans in the wake of the US navy withdrawal from Afghanistan and as the Taliban regained management of the nation.
Over 190,000 Afghans have resettled in the US beneath each Operation Allies Welcome and the program that replaced it, identified as Enduring Welcome, according to the State Department.
Most Afghans who arrived beneath Operation Allies Welcome had been allowed to enter and stay in the US for 2 years, with no everlasting immigration standing. More than 40% of the migrants admitted in this system had been eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) as a result of they took nice dangers to assist the US, or had been associated to somebody who did, based on the Department of Homeland Security.
Lakanwal utilized for asylum in 2024 and was granted it the next 12 months beneath the Trump administration, a number of legislation enforcement officers advised NCS.
Afghans admitted to the US beneath Operation Allies Welcome underwent extensive vetting, regardless of claims by Trump and his allies on the time.
The shooting befell round 2:15 p.m. Wednesday in Farragut Square, a tourist-heavy space positioned close to a busy transit middle and the White House.
The two Guardsmen had been performing “high visibility patrols” when the suspect approached them, raised a gun and began shooting at them, Executive Assistant Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department Jeffery Carroll stated at a information convention following the assault.
Carroll stated after “some back and forth” the Guardsmen had been “able to subdue” the suspect and take him into custody.
DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to offer first help, Carroll stated. The suspect and the Guardsmen had been transported to space hospitals, he added.
An eyewitness named Patrick advised NCS he was about to enter a close-by bar round 2:10 p.m. when he heard loud bangs and noticed folks operating.
“They were thick gunshots. I mean, I couldn’t really tell if it was a rifle or a pistol, but some type of big caliber,” stated Patrick, who declined to present his final title.
Once he stopped listening to gunshots, he walked to the intersection and noticed two National Guardsmen and a 3rd particular person on the bottom. Shattered glass from the bus cease coated the bottom. He stated folks had been performing CPR on one of many Guardsman, whereas the opposite Guardsman had blood close to his head.
Following the shooting, Trump requested for 500 extra National Guard troops to be deployed to the nation’s capital, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated Wednesday.
That request got here regardless of an ongoing authorized battle over whether or not the unique National Guard deployment was authorized. On Wednesday, the Trump administration additionally requested a federal appeals courtroom for an emergency keep of final week’s order from a federal decide to take away the National Guard from Washington, DC.
In a video tackle from his Mar-a-Lago membership in Florida, Trump blamed the Biden administration for bringing the alleged shooter to the US and argued the assault “underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation.”
Trump lamented what he described as “20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners” who entered the US throughout his predecessor’s administration, casting it as “a risk to our very survival.”
The president described the suspect as a “foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hell hole on earth.” In the identical remarks, he additionally took intention at Somali immigrants dwelling in Minnesota, claiming they’re “ripping off our country and ripping apart that once-great state,” casting Somalia as a rustic that has “no laws, no water, no military, no nothing.”
Trump vowed to “re-examine every single alien who has entered our country under Biden,” a course of that has already begun, as NCS reported earlier this week.
Shortly after Trump’s tackle, US Citizenship and Immigration Services introduced it had stopped processing immigration circumstances associated to Afghan immigrants “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”
“The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission,” the company stated in a statement on X.