The shooter who left one West Virginia National Guard member dead and another fighting for life, 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is expected to survive his own injuries.
While Lakanwal will likely survive for now, Attorney General Pam Bondi has vowed that her prosecutors will do everything in their power to make sure he is given the death penalty.
“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.
“I know that he underwent surgery the night it happened,” the official added.
The attack unfolded on Wednesday, Thanksgiving eve, just blocks from the White House, when Lakanwal allegedly opened fire on unarmed Guardsmen Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, who were on routine patrol.
A third guardsman intervened, shooting and wounding Lakanwal, who was hospitalized in serious condition before his arrest.
Beckstrom succumbed to her injuries on Thanksgiving, while Wolfe remains in critical condition as of Friday.
Resettled in the U.S. in September 2021 under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome (OAW), a program that cost taxpayers over $14 billion, Lakanwal had worked with the CIA and Afghan forces in Kandahar before being granted asylum in April. He drove from his residence in Bellingham, Washington, to carry out the targeted attack.
Brother of DC National Guard Shooter Was Elite CIA Platoon Leader
President Trump has already responded by pausing migration from high-risk countries and vowing to end such programs, calling OAW a disaster funded by hardworking Americans. As author and political commentator Mike Cernovich put it, this is yet another example of taxpayers footing the bill for their own peril.
President Trump has not ruled out deporting the family of Lakanwal, which includes at least a brother, wife, and his five children.
As Gateway Pundit previously reported, the shooter’s brother served as a platoon leader in the same elite CIA-backed “Zero Unit” as his murderous sibling. He also lives in the United States, but has not been publicly identified at this time.
Brother of DC National Guard Shooter Was Elite CIA Platoon Leader
Speaking to reporters on Thanksgiving, Trump revealed his team is actively reviewing the option, stating, “Well, we’re looking at that right now,” when asked about expelling Lakanwal’s wife and five children from the U.S.
The FBI is investigating the motive, but officials have not yet classified it as terrorism, despite the suspect’s background and the targeted nature of the attack.
President Trump, on the other hand, wasted no time blasting the incident as a “terrorist attack” and pinning the blame squarely on Biden’s failed immigration policies.
In a late-night Thanksgiving post on Truth Social, Trump announced Beckstrom’s death and Wolfe’s critical status, vowing to “permanently pause migration from all Third World countries” like Afghanistan.
Trump additionally promised to end federal benefits for noncitizens, denaturalize threats, and deport those “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
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