The man accused of shooting two National Guard members in DC is expected to survive, meaning he will face a full criminal trial in Washington. “I think the guy’s going to live. Nobody’s going to be able to say anything and he’s going to stand trial,” a law enforcement official told The New York Post while giving an update on the condition of the suspected shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
“I know that he underwent surgery the night it happened,” the official said, adding that because a trial is expected, prosecutors will have to limit what they release about Lakanwal, who is accused of shooting two West Virginia National Guard members just a few blocks from the White House on Nov. 26.
Gearing Up for a Big Battle
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Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died on Thanksgiving, just a day after the attack. A spokesperson for Joint Task Force — DC, the group overseeing the deployment, said Saturday that there were no new updates on the condition of the second Guard member, Andrew Wolfe.
Wolfe remains in critical condition after the shooting. “Andrew is fighting for his life right now,” West Virginia Gov. Patrick James Morrisey told Fox & Friends Saturday.
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US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, said Friday that the government plans to charge the suspected shooter with first-degree murder.
“There are certainly many more charges to come, but we are upgrading the initial charges of assault to murder in the first degree,” she said following the death of Beckstrom.
A hero National Guard member, armed with nothing more than a pocket knife, managed to subdue the suspect, according to reports.
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Officials said Lakanwal had “disappeared” roughly two weeks before the attack, traveling across the country from his home in Bellingham, Washington.
Motive Still Unclear
Lakanwal allegedly pulled out a .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson revolver and opened fire on the Guardsmen, striking Beckstrom in the head and chest. Lawyer and strategist Mike Davis, citing law enforcement sources shortly after the attack, said that one Guard member stabbed the suspect multiple times in the head, while another shot him in the leg and buttocks.
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When authorities loaded Lakanwal into an ambulance, he was nearly naked.
It’s not yet clear what kind of surgery doctors performed on him.
Authorities also haven’t shared any updates on his current condition or what might have motivated the shocking attack.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said after the shooting that Lakanwal had previously worked with the CIA in Afghanistan.
He entered the U.S. in 2021 following the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Investigators are now trying to figure out when and where he may have become radicalized.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, suggested on Saturday that Lakanwal might have received training inside the U.S., noting that he came in on a Special Immigrant Visa.
“He had a special number below it because he was trained and worked with the CIA. There’s actually … a good possibility that he came in and was here and trained on US soil. We don’t know that for a fact but there’s a good possibility,” he told Fox News.
