Shortly after 2:00 p.m. in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, a shooter opened fire on two West Virginia National Guard soldiers, critically injuring both of them. The alleged shooter was identified by CNN and CBS News as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old from Afghanistan who came to the United States in 2021 and was a resident of Washington state.
Neither of the soldiers has been identified beyond the fact that they were from West Virginia. Lakanwal and the two soldiers are both currently hospitalized. The shooting took place just two blocks from the White House.
Police claimed 15 shots were exchanged. National Guardsmen and the shooter were both armed. According to police, the shooter ambushed the two Guardsmen and was then taken down by other Guardsmen who heard or witnessed the shooting.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the FBI, US Secret Service, Metropolitan Police and National Guard soldiers swarmed the area, while the Treasury Department and the White House were put into a “lockdown” status. Flights in and out of Reagan International Airport were also temporarily halted.
As of this writing, police have yet to identify a motive in the attack. Initial reports indicate Lakanwal immigrated to the United States in 2021 following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the return to power by the Taliban. After US proxy forces in Afghanistan disintegrated following the US military’s withdrawal, approximately 200,000 people from Afghanistan, many who worked with and for US and allied forces during the 20-year occupation, were allowed to immigrate to the US under Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Earlier this year, as part of Trump’s mass deportation operation, TPS was terminated for millions of people, including the majority of Afghan-born that came to the US in 2021 and later. In terminating TPS for people from Afghanistan, the Trump administration argued that Afghanistan under Taliban rule was now “safe.” Reports indicate Lakanwal was legally in the United States until September of this year.
The shooting is already being used by the Trump administration to justify further military deployments and attacks on democratic rights. Shortly after the shooting, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth publicly announced that President Trump, currently in Florida, requested additional troops be deployed to D.C.
“We will secure our capital, we will secure our cities,” Hegseth said, adding, “That’s why President Trump has asked me, and I will ask the Secretary of the Army, National Guard, to add 500 additional troops, National Guardsmen to Washington, D.C.”
Appealing exclusively to Christians, Hegseth added, “I mentioned the faith of this country, the Christian faith, the prayers, I would ask for prayers for our National Guardsmen.” Looking to the sky he added, “Appeals to Heaven for our National Guardsmen … on bended knee as a War Department as a nation.”
On his social media site, Trump characterized the shooter as an “animal” and said he will “pay a very steep price.”
The only reason Guardsmen are in D.C. in the first place is because Trump ordered the troops deployed to the city in August under the pretext of “fighting crime.” In reality, the troops are part of Trump’s ongoing efforts to establish a police military dictatorship. Since returning to the White House earlier this year, Trump has deployed National Guard units alongside federal agents in an effort to normalize heavily armed troops on US streets.
Trump has also repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, ordered the creation of a “quick reaction” force to respond to “domestic” incidents and branded opposition to fascism, that is “antifa,” as domestic terrorism.
In response to a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the D.C. deployment, last week U.S. Federal Judge Jia M. Cobb ruled Trump “exceeded the bounds” of his authority and that the Guard were being used for “non-military, crime-deterrence” reasons, in violation of Title 49 of the D.C. Code. While Cobb ruled the deployment illegal, she also issued an administrative stay on her decision for 21 days, allowing the Trump administration to appeal.
Trump has ordered National Guard deployments throughout the country, including in Los Angeles; Memphis, Tennessee; Portland, Oregon and Chicago, Illinois. Judges have blocked deployments in Tennessee, Oregon and Illinois. As of this writing, over 2,000 National Guard soldiers are currently deployed in D.C. This includes nearly 1,000 from the city itself, with the rest from Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia and Alabama. Earlier this month, the D.C. Guard’s deployment was extended through February 28, 2026.
The shooting is being used by far-right elements to agitate against their political enemies. On his program following the shooting, Alex Jones of InfoWars featured Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes to lobby Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. Rhodes was previously convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in Trump’s failed coup. Trump pardoned him, alongside over 1,500 fascist foot soldiers earlier this year.
Speaking on Wednesday, Rhodes declared, “The left, the media, the uniparty and the deep state has been demonizing the National Guard as well as ICE for the duration of the Trump presidency.”
On the shooter, Rhodes, parroting Jones, added, “I’m curious to find out. Is it a leftist? A jihadist? Some antifa that’s been brainwashed to believe that the National Guard are Nazis? Is it some whacked out trannie? We’ll find out.
“But regardless of who it is, the identity of the shooter, this is, this should be laid right at the feet of the radical left, right at the feet of the Democrats and right at the feet of the mainstream media that has demonized relentlessly and brainwashed people ...”