Two National Guard members shot near White House, FBI probes gunman’s motive

Two members of the National Guard were shot on Wednesday in a busy area near the White House in downtown Washington, officials said, putting the building into lockdown with President Donald Trump away in Florida.

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey initially said in a post on X that both victims were members of his state’s National Guard and had died from their injuries, but he soon posted a second statement citing “conflicting reports” about their condition.

Investigators led by the FBI’s joint terrorism task force sought clues on Thursday to what drove an Afghan immigrant to open fire on two National Guard soldiers mere blocks from the White House in what officials called an “ambush” attack on Thanksgiving eve.

The two soldiers, part of a militarized law enforcement mission ordered by President Donald Trump months ago and challenged in court by officials of the District of Columbia, were hospitalized in critical condition.

The suspect, who was wounded in an exchange of gunfire before he was arrested, was identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national. 

Trump administration official said the suspected shooter had been transported to a hospital with gunshot wounds. The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear.

Trump is at his resort in Palm Beach ahead of Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday, while U.S. Vice President JD Vance is in Kentucky.

Vice President JD Vance, said in a post on X that the shooting proved that the Trump administration’s immigration policy was justified.

“We must redouble our efforts to deport people with no right to be in our country,” he said.

In a social media post, Trump called the suspected shooter an “animal” who would “pay a very steep price” and praised the National Guard.

The shooting unfolded near Farragut Square, a popular lunch spot for office workers just a few blocks away from the White House. The park, whose light posts are wrapped in wreaths and bows for the holiday season, is flanked by fast-casual restaurants and a coffee shop, as well as two metro stops.

Trump, released a prerecorded video statement late on Wednesday calling the shooting “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror.” He said his administration would “re-examine” all Afghans who came to the U.S. during Joe Biden’s presidency.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency later said that it has halted processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely, “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

According to the DHS, Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program to resettle thousands of Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the Afghanistan war and feared reprisals from Taliban forces who seized control of their homeland after the U.S. withdrawal. 

Stacey Walters, 43, was in an Uber near the White House around 2:15 p.m. ET (1915 GMT) when she heard two loud booms and saw young children and other pedestrians running from the scene.

She said she heard someone yell “Help! Help!” and saw what appeared to be US Secret Service agents running after someone in a hooded sweatshirt.

Mike Ryan, 55, said he was on his way to buy lunch nearby when he heard what sounded like gunfire He ran away half a block and heard another round of apparent gunfire.

When he made his way back to the scene, he saw two National Guard members on the ground across the street, with people trying to resuscitate one of them. At the same time, other National Guard members had pinned down someone on the ground, Ryan said.

The incident appeared to have triggered a response from the full range of Washington security agencies, from the Secret Service to the Metropolitan Police and the Metro Transit Police.

National Guard soldiers have been in Washington since August, when Trump deployed them to the streets as part of his crackdown on immigration and crime in Democratic-led cities. As of Wednesday, there were about 2,200 National Guard troops in Washington, including troops from the district as well as Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia and Alabama.

Trump, a Republican, has suggested repeatedly that crime has disappeared from the capital as a result of the deployment, which was heavily criticized by Democrats.

NBC News, citing an interview with an unnamed relative of the suspect, reported early on Thursday that Lakanwal served in the Afghan army for 10 years alongside U.S. Special Forces troops and was stationed in Kandahar for part of that time.

The relative also said Lakanwal was working for online retail giant Amazon.com AMZN.O the last time they spoke several months ago, according to NBC News.

The DHS did not include other details of his immigration record, but a Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Lakanwal applied for asylum in December 2024 and was approved on April 23 of this year, three months after Trump took office. Lakanwal, 29, who resided in Washington state, had no known criminal history, the official said.

The shooting unfolded at midday outside a subway station in a bustling commercial area within a few blocks of the White House. Secret Service agents placed the presidential mansion under a security lockdown immediately after the shooting as a precaution.

In response to Wednesday’s shooting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the president had asked to send another 500 National Guard troops to join the more than 2,000 Guard soldiers previously mobilized in the nation’s capital.

Critics of the Trump administration’s immigration policy say it has employed illegally harsh tactics and swept up immigrants indiscriminately, including some with no criminal history and others here legally.

ATTACK OUTSIDE SUBWAY STATION

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has clashed openly with Trump over the deployment of Guard troops in her city, told reporters hours after the incident, “this is a targeted shooting.”

At the same news briefing, Jeff Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, said the two Guard soldiers were “ambushed” and that the known assailant appeared to have acted alone.

The two soldiers, members of the West Virginia National Guard, were on a “high-visibility patrol” outside the entrance to a subway station when the suspect “came around the corner,” drew a weapon and immediately fired at the pair, Carroll said.

After an exchange of gunfire, other National Guard troops subdued the suspect, he said.

Trump said in August he was ordering the National Guard deployment to fight crime in a city he said had become unsafe, despite objections from District of Columbia officials who challenged the move in court as an infringement on local government control.

Wednesday’s shooting came five days after a federal judge issued a ruling to temporarily block National Guard troops from performing law enforcement duties in the district without the mayor’s approval, but the judge paused the effect of her order until December to allow an appeal from the Trump administration.

Trump, a Republican, has deployed troops in several other Democratic-led cities – Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Oregon, and Memphis, Tennessee – to combat what he has described as lawlessness and violent unrest over his crackdown on illegal immigration.

Democratic leaders of those cities have accused Trump of manufacturing pretexts for militarized shows of force to punish political foes.