Federal authorities have identified the suspect in the deadly shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who entered the United States during the chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The revelation has ignited an immediate political firestorm, with President Donald Trump announcing a sweeping review of the immigration status of all Afghans admitted under the Biden administration.
Law enforcement sources confirm that Lakanwal, who is currently hospitalized after being wounded during his capture, arrived in the U.S. under “Operation Allies Welcome,” the massive airlift operation that evacuated tens of thousands of Afghans following the fall of Kabul. Investigators are now aggressively probing Lakanwal’s background for potential links to international terrorist groups, specifically the Taliban and al-Qaeda, amidst fears that he may have been a “sleeper” agent or radicalized post-arrival.
The identification of an evacuee as the shooter has prompted a furious response from the White House. President Trump, who has long criticized the 2021 withdrawal as a national disgrace, seized on the incident to order an immediate and “total reexamination” of the vetting procedures used for every Afghan national admitted during that period. “We are going to find out who let this animal into our country,” Trump declared in a statement. “The era of unvetted entry is over.”
The controversy is further inflamed by reports regarding continued U.S. financial involvement in Afghanistan. Administration critics have pointed to the fact that the U.S. government is still shipping approximately $40 million in cash every two weeks to Kabul, ostensibly for humanitarian aid, which effectively stabilizes the Taliban regime. The optics of a Taliban-linked attack in the U.S. capital, perpetrated by a man evacuated by the U.S. military, while American tax dollars flow to the very government that harbored him, has created a toxic political crisis.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that her department has begun pulling the files of thousands of “parolees” to identify any gaps in their initial screening. “We were told these were our allies,” Noem stated. “We are now finding out that in the rush to the exits, the door was left open for our enemies.”
As the FBI digs into Lakanwal’s digital footprint and communications, the focus is shifting to whether this was a “lone wolf” attack or part of a coordinated terror plot. With the capital already locked down and hundreds more troops en route, the shooting has fundamentally altered the debate on national security and immigration.
