Top Trump administration officials said Sunday that the Afghan refugee accused of shooting two National Guard members before Thanksgiving in the nation’s capital likely had been radicalized in the U.S. after entering the country in 2021.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the early stages of investigation suggest that Rahmanullah Lakanwal “could have been radicalized in his home community and in his home state” of Washington.
The ambush in the nation’s capital Wednesday afternoon has prompted soul-searching about President Biden’s chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan, U.S. vetting of refugees and whether President Trump is using the tragedy to punish immigrants who pose no risk to the country.
“As we continue to talk to his family and his contacts, more details will be revealed, and we’ll release those when it’s appropriate,” Ms. Noem told ABC’s “This Week.” “But this is something that, for these individuals, when they’re brought into our country, it’s a dangerous situation.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told “Fox News Sunday” that Mr. Lakanwal “was radicalized, you’re going to hear a lot more about that.”
Emails reviewed by The Associated Press show that Mr. Lakanwal, 29, of Bellingham, Washington, struggled to find stability and sometimes isolated himself from his family after his relocation to the U.S. in 2021.
Ms. Noem said the Biden administration is squarely to blame for any vetting failures tied to Mr. Lakanwal, who is accused of killing Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and severely wounding Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, a fellow West Virginian.
“Andrew is fighting for his life,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Sunday en route to Washington from Florida.
The West Virginia National Guard troops were shot just blocks from the White House. Mr. Trump said he plans to honor both victims at the White House.
Mr. Lakanwal resettled in the U.S. under Mr. Biden but received asylum in April, months after Mr. Trump took office.
“All the information that was gathered on that vetting process was gathered under the Biden administration,” Ms. Noem told ABC’s “This Week.” “His asylum claim application started under the Biden administration. That information was provided by them, and the responsibility lies with them.”
Ms. Noem said the Trump team took steps to address gaps in the vetting process established under the Biden administration, including how officials reviewed military records.
“That has been completely fixed,” Ms. Noem said.
Democrats objected to the Trump team’s explanation. They said officials were trying to deflect blame onto their predecessors.
“This is a president who refused to take responsibility for anything,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, told ABC.
The senator said the U.S. should review its vetting procedures, but it was unclear whether the government mishandled the case of the pre-Thanksgiving ambush.
“The reality is we really don’t know what motivated him to take this particular act,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “It’s not clear that you could have picked something up in this case.”
Mr. Lakanwal worked in the Afghan army’s Zero Unit, which was supported by the CIA.
He entered the United States in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the American withdrawal. Many had worked alongside U.S. troops and diplomats.
Samantha Vinograd, a counterterrorism official in the Biden administration and current commentator, said the vetting system verifies biometric identifiers, such as fingerprints, against datasets to assess a person’s allegiances or potential risks.
However, she told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the system cannot predict whether someone will become violent at some point.
Mr. Lakanwal would have been vetted by the CIA “prior to beginning work in the Zero Unit,” said Ms. Vinograd, and would have been involved in “very intense missions” with the unit.
Mr. Lakanwal resettled with his wife and their five sons, all younger than 12, in Bellingham but struggled, according to a community member who shared emails sent to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nonprofit organization that provides services to refugees.
Emails reviewed by the AP described a man who struggled to assimilate, unable to hold a steady job or commit to his English courses, while he alternated between “periods of dark isolation and reckless travel.” Sometimes, he spent weeks in his “darkened room, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife or older kids.” At one point in 2023, the family faced eviction after months of not paying rent.
One community member spoke in an interview of becoming worried that Mr. Lakanwal was so depressed that he would end up harming himself, but did not see any indication that Mr. Lakanwal would commit violence against another person.
There were “interim” weeks where Mr. Lakanwal would try to make amends and “do the right things,” according to the email, reengaging with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services as was mandated by the terms of his entry into the U.S.
“This guy drove across the country, as we all know, from Washington state to execute our National Guard members,” Ms. Bondi said.
Mr. Lakanwal has been charged with first-degree murder, three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.
Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said more charges are likely.
Rep. Riley Moore, West Virginia Republican, said he spoke with Sgt. Wolfe’s family as they kept watch at the hospital.
“He is hanging on, he is fighting for his life,” Mr. Moore told CNN’s “State of the Union.” The family said, “Please, just continue to pray, it’s working.”
Ms. Bondi said she planned to visit the family late Sunday.
“We have to pray to fight to get him back to 100% and do everything we can to support his family,” the attorney general said.
Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat, said the National Guard members should not have been deployed to the nation’s capital in the first place. He said Mr. Trump usurped the role of local police as part of a political exercise to cut crime rates in the nation’s capital.
“These two individuals should have been celebrating Thanksgiving with their families, and I just mourn for them,” Mr. Kaine told CBS on Sunday.
Mr. Moore, meanwhile, said the gunman should not have been roaming U.S. streets.
He said initial vetting of resettled Afghans after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in 2021 was so rushed that it led to mistakes.
“We do need to start re-vetting these folks,” Mr. Moore said.
Mr. Trump has vowed to re-vet every Afghan admitted over the past four years and search for other foreign threats within the immigrant population.
He said the U.S. will look at “any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country.”
“Crooked Joe Biden, [Alejandro] Mayorkas, and so-called ‘Border Czar’ Kamala Harris really screwed our Country by letting anyone and everyone come in totally unchecked and unvetted!” Mr. Trump posted Sunday on Truth Social.
Later on Sunday, aboard Air Force One, Mr. Trump signaled he planned to pause asylum claims for “a long time” but did not say for how long.
Some Democrats said Mr. Trump was using the tragedy to divide people or impose burdens on immigrants who had undergone a rigorous process.
“Many of them worked alongside U.S. service members and provided a valuable service to the United States of America and deserve an opportunity to resettle in our country,” Sen. Mark Kelly, Arizona Democrat, said of resettled Afghans in a CNN interview.
More broadly, the senator said the administration wanted to keep “Brown people” out of the U.S.
“We are a country that has always welcomed individuals that are struggling, that are fleeing famine and violence,” Mr. Kelly told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And it would be a fundamental change to the fabric of our nation to change that.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat, took exception to Mr. Trump’s social media posts claiming Somali gangs had taken over parts of her state.
The senator said Mr. Trump took a tragedy involving an Afghan national in the District of Columbia and “somehow indicted an entire group of people, 80,000 of them in my state.”
“This is what he does,” Ms. Klobuchar said. “He tries to stoke division and make people hate each other.”
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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