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It’s now become a first-degree murder case against Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, a native of Afghanistan who is in custody on charges he ambushed two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., shooting both and killing one.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C., confirmed, “It is a premeditated murder. There was an ambush with a gun toward people who didn’t know what was coming. And that is the homicide, and that is the murder that we’re looking at right now.”
She said, ‘You can go into all the other stuff. But as a prosecutor, my job is to prove what happened at that scene. And make no mistake, we will do that.”
The upgrade to the case came after it was announced that one of the two Guardsmen ambushed had died. Trump made the announcement about the loss of U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, who died on Thanksgiving Day.
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe remains in critical condition.
Pirro, in an interview on Fox & Friends, said, “She volunteered and she ended up being shot, ambush style, on the cold streets of Washington, D.C., by an individual who will now be charged with murder in the first degree. There are certainly many more charges to come, but we are upgrading the initial charges of assault to murder in the first degree.”
Pirro said there remained hope for Wolfe.
The suspect reportedly came into the United States under a program set up by Joe Biden, which allowed newcomers to enter without proper vetting.
“This is a targeted shooting,” Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.
Bill Melugin of Fox News indicated: “Per multiple federal law enforcement sources, the suspect in custody for the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in DC is an Afghan national who entered the U.S. on 9/8/2021 as part of the Biden admin’s Operation Allies Welcome in the aftermath of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“I’m told his permission to be in the U.S. expired in September of this year, and he is now in the country illegally.”
BREAKING: The Afghan national accused of shooting the National Guard members entered the U.S. under Biden’s ‘Operation Allies Welcome’ program.
The program was launched to resettle Afghans around the time of the disastrous withdrawal.
“It appears that he immigrated here into… pic.twitter.com/03OY7KbAtD
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 27, 2025
The New York Post reported Lakanwal was allegedly lying in wait before he rounded the corner near the Farragut West Metro Station, “then opened fire, striking a female guard in the chest before shooting her in the head, according to law enforcement sources.”
Trump promised the attacker would “pay a very steep price.”
Trump pulls plug on Afghan immigration following National Guard shooting
Shocking detail revealed about 2 National Guardsmen shot in D.C.
Pete Hegseth confirms: Trump orders 500 more National Guard troops for D.C.
