{"id":55887,"date":"2025-11-29T23:08:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T23:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55887\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T23:08:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T23:08:20","slug":"rahmanullah-lakanwal-expected-to-survive-after-dc-national-guard-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55887\/","title":{"rendered":"Rahmanullah Lakanwal expected to survive after DC National Guard shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The suspect in the horrific shooting of two National Guard members<\/a> in DC is expected to recover from his own injuries \u2014 while the surviving guardsman is still fighting for his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the guy\u2019s going to live. Nobody\u2019s going to be able to say anything and he\u2019s going to stand trial,\u201d a law enforcement official told The Post, providing an update on the condition of alleged shooter Rahmanullah Lakanwal<\/a>, 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that he underwent surgery the night it happened,\u201d said the official, who noted that the DC trial process would require prosecutors to hold back information on Lakanwal, who allegedly fired on two West Virginia National Guard members<\/a> just blocks from the White House on Nov. 26.<\/p>\n

\"ARahmanullah Lakanwal is \u201cgoing to stand trial,\u201d a law enforcement official told The Post. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Specialist Sarah Beckstrom<\/a>, 20, died on Thanksgiving<\/a>, the day after the ambush.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Joint Task Force \u2014 DC, which oversees the deployment, said Saturday there were no updates on the second Guard member, Andrew Wolfe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He was in critical condition<\/a> following the shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew is fighting for his life right now,\u201d West Virginia Gov. Patrick James Morrisey told Fox & Friends Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said Friday the government will bring charges<\/a> of first-degree murder against the alleged gunman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certainly many more charges to come, but we are upgrading the initial charges of assault to murder in the first degree,\u201d she said following the death of Beckstrom.<\/p>\n

A hero National Guard member who responded to the incident armed only with a pocket knife took down the suspect, according to reports.<\/p>\n

Lakanwal \u201cdisappeared\u201d about two weeks before the attack<\/a>, according to a neighbor, and drove across the country from his home in Bellingham, Washington, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u00a0allegedly pulled out a .357 Magnum-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and fired on the Guardsmen, shooting Beckstrom in the head and chest.<\/p>\n

\"RahmanullahLakanwal (right) is suspected of shooting two National Guard members in DC, killing Sarah Beckstrom. Obtained by the Wall Street Journal<\/p>\n

According to lawyer and strategist Mike Davis, who spoke to law enforcement sources immediately after the incident, one Guard member stabbed the suspect in the head multiple times, while another shot him in the leg and buttocks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lakanwal was nearly naked when authorities took him away from the scene in an ambulance.<\/p>\n

Follow the latest on the National Guard shooting in Washington, DC: <\/p>\n

It was not immediately known what type of surgery doctors performed on him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Authorities have not provided updates on either his medical condition or the motive of his shocking attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said following the shooting that Lakanwal had worked with the CIA in Afghanistan<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He entered the country in 2021 following the US pullout of Afghanistan. Investigators are trying to determine where and when he became radicalized.<\/p>\n

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Saturday raised the possibility that he received training inside the US, noting that Lakanwal came in on a Special Immigrant Visa.He said the visa \u201chad a special number below it because he was trained and worked with the CIA. There\u2019s actually \u2026\u00a0 a good possibility that he came in and was here and trained on US soil. We don\u2019t know that for a fact but there\u2019s a good possibility,\u201d he told Fox News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The suspect in the horrific shooting of two National Guard members in DC is expected to recover from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5435,9,11,10,3980,58,8093],"class_list":{"0":"post-55887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-national-guard","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-shootings","13":"tag-us-news","14":"tag-washington-dc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}