Officials said Mr Lakanwal came to the US from Afghanistan in 2021.
He will be charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed as well as possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said on Thursday morning at a news conference, before news of Ms Beckstrom’s death.
“We are praying that they survive and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree,” Pirro added. “But make no mistake, if they do not, that will certainly be the charge: murder in the first degree.”
Attorney General Bondi told Fox News on Thursday that her office will seek the death penalty against the suspect, calling him a “monster who should not have been in our country”.
Mr Lakanwal reportedly came to the US under a programme named Operation Allies Welcome, which offered special immigration protections to Afghans in the wake of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
He had helped guard US forces at Kabul airport in 2021 as thousands scrambled to escape Afghanistan before the Taliban took power, a former military commander who served alongside him told the BBC’s Afghan Service.
The suspect had been recruited to Unit 03 of the Kandahar Strike Force. His unit was known locally as Scorpion Forces, operating initially under the CIA but eventually for the Afghan intelligence department known as the National Directorate of Security.
Mr Lakanwal was a GPS tracker specialist, the former commander told the BBC, describing him as a “sporty and jolly character”.
His whole unit was moved from Kandahar to Kabul five days before the Taliban entered the capital. They continued to protect the airport for another six days, before they too were airlifted out to the US.
At a press conference on Thursday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed Mr Lakanwal’s connection to US forces, saying the suspect “had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces”, before moving to the US.
Mr Lakanwal applied for asylum in 2024, and his application had been granted earlier this year, an official told CBS.
On Thursday, Joseph Edlow US Citizenship and Immigration Services chief said the president had directed him to conduct “a full scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern”.
When asked by the BBC which countries were on the list, the agency pointed to a June proclamation by the White House, external that included Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Somalia and Venezuela.
Hafizullah Maroof and Sayed Abdullah Nizami of BBC Afghan Service contributed to this report