Authorities investigating Wednesday’s shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., say the suspect was radicalized after entering the United States in 2021 under former President Joe Biden’s asylum program.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, turned against the country that gave him a home. Lakanwal ambushed two National Guard soldiers, murdering one and critically wounding the other.
“We believe he was radicalized since he’s been here in this country,” Noem told host Kristen Welker. “We do believe it was through connections in his home community and state, and we’re going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members… talk to them.”
Lakanwal arrived in the United States on September 8, 2021, under Operation Allies Welcome during Biden’s chaotic and deadly Afghanistan withdrawal. A relative who served alongside him supporting U.S. troops said Lakanwal spent 10 years in the Afghan army working with U.S. Special Forces and the CIA. He was stationed at a U.S. base in Kandahar for part of his service.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed Thursday that Lakanwal 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,” Ratcliffe said in a statement.
The suspect was living in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five children before the attack but would repeatedly isolate himself in his bedroom for weeks at a time. He struggled with employment, and his family is reportedly facing eviction.
According to a report by The Associated Press —
Lakanwal resettled with his wife and their five sons, all under the age of 12, in Bellingham, Washington, but struggled, according to the community member, who shared emails that had been sent to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nonprofit group that provides services to refugees.
“Rahmanullah has not been functional as a person, father and provider since March of last year, 03/2023. He quit his job that month, and his behavior has changed greatly,” the person wrote in a January 2024 email.
The emails described a man who was struggling to assimilate, unable to hold a steady job or commit to his English courses while he alternated between “periods of dark isolation and reckless travel.” Sometimes, he spent weeks in his “darkened room, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife or older kids.” At one point in 2023, the family faced eviction after months of not paying rent.
Still, a relative who spoke to NBC News said they were shocked by the shooting.
“We were the ones that were targeted by the Taliban in Afghanistan,” the relative said. “I cannot believe it that he might do this.”
The deadly Islamic terror attack occurred Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. a short distance from the White House and across the country from where Lakanwal was living.
Noem defended the Trump administration’s handling of Lakanwal’s asylum application, which was approved in April of this year.
“Vetting is happening when they come into the country, and that was completely abandoned under Joe Biden’s administration,” Noem said. “That’s the irresponsibility that has completely devastated our country [and] put us in such a dangerous position. I don’t think people realize when Joe Biden was in the White House exactly how he was allowing our country to be infiltrated with people that we didn’t know who they were.”
Refugee group was warned that DC shooting suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal was spiraling into mania — he got asylum anyway https://t.co/YzBmmd9j4I pic.twitter.com/VgnD3thhDg
— New York Post (@nypost) November 30, 2025
“We’re going to use every tool at our disposable to bring him to justice, and make him pay for what he has done not just to America, but how he’s devastated these families and taken the life of one of our soldiers, and devastatingly injured another one that we’re still praying for each and every day,” Noem said.
The Trump administration has ordered a review of all Afghans who entered the United States during the Biden administration. Noem said the government will conduct re-vetting interviews for anyone with asylum claims.
“We are going to go through every single person that has a pending asylum claim, has an asylum claim here in this country,” Noem said. “You know, one of the requirements of asylum is that you have to come in every single year for a check-up, and an interview process, and a re-vetting. And that is something that we’re going to expedite, and happen immediately with anyone who does have that asylum claim today, and ensure that they deserve to still be in this country, that they still have the purposes for which they claimed that asylum in place. And that they’re not here being radicalized, and perpetuating dangerous criminal activity against our Americans.”
President Donald Trump said the United States would “permanently pause migration” from all “third world countries” after the deadly Islamic terror attack.