An Afghan national named Rahmanullah Lakanwal has been identified as the suspected shooter in the ambush attack that wounded two National Guard troops just blocks away from the White House on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said.
The CIA said Thursday that Lakanwal previously worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar that ended in 2021 following the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The suspect was shot by another Guard member and taken into custody, officials said. He is currently hospitalized.
Here’s what we know about the suspect so far. This story will be updated as additional information is confirmed.
Suspect entered U.S. 4 years ago
Lakanwal, 29, entered the United States in 2021, multiple law enforcement sources told CBS News on Wednesday.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said on X that the suspect was paroled into the U.S. on Sept. 8, 2021, under a Biden-era program for Afghan nationals called Operation Allies Welcome.
President Trump described him as “a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth,” in a video message late Wednesday. He said the suspect’s status was extended “under legislation signed by President Biden.”
A Department of Homeland Security official told CBS News the suspect was paroled into the U.S. on humanitarian grounds back in 2021. That was the main legal mechanism the Biden administration used to welcome tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees after the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
A CIA spokesperson confirmed Thursday that the suspect worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA.
Lakanwal later applied for asylum with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2024 and his application was granted in 2025, the DHS official said. But his request for a green card, which is tied to the asylum grant, is pending.
Many of the Afghan nationals who were admitted to the U.S. in 2021 were issued special immigrant visas offered to those who worked alongside the military during its 20-year war, while others were given a temporary humanitarian status known as parole.
More than 8,000 people from Afghanistan were also granted deportation relief under a separate program called temporary protected status, which Biden extended in 2023 but Mr. Trump chose to end earlier this year.
Suspect isn’t cooperating
The suspect was subdued at the scene of the shooting and taken into custody by National Guard members and law enforcement officers, Jeff Carroll, executive assistant chief of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, told reporters earlier Wednesday.
At this time, he isn’t cooperating with authorities, law enforcement sources said.
Police say suspect was “lone gunman” who “ambushed” National Guard
Carroll said the suspect appeared to be “a lone gunman that raised the firearm and ambushed these members of the National Guard” as they patrolled near a mass transit station in downtown D.C.
The suspect had four rounds in his handgun initially, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News. The first victim — a female Guard member — was struck immediately and collapsed where she stood. She sustained at least two gunshot wounds during the ambush, the sources said.
Then, the suspect took her weapon and used it to continue shooting, striking the second Guard member, according to multiple sources. A third Guard member, who was not injured, ultimately returned fire, ending the attack.
The two wounded Guard members are in critical condition, FBI Director Kash Patel said. Both are from the West Virginia National Guard.
The Guard members were on “high visibility patrols,” Carroll said, part of a monthslong deployment of National Guard troops from D.C. and several states ordered by President Trump.