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WASHINGTON – The FBI searched multiple properties in Washington state and San Diego on Thursday in what officials said was a terrorism probe into an Afghan national suspected of shooting two National Guard members, who remained in critical condition.

Investigators seized numerous electronic devices from the suspect’s house in Washington state, including cellphones, laptops, and iPads, and interviewed the suspect’s relatives, FBI Director Kash Patel told a news conference in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro identified the two wounded Guard members as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24.

Pirro said the suspect ambushed the Guard members while they were patrolling near the White House on Wednesday afternoon. Armed with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, he shot one member who fell and then shot again before firing multiple times at the second member.

Suspect worked with U.S. forces in Afghanistan

Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News the U.S. government planned to bring terrorism charges against the gunman and seek a sentence of life in prison “at a minimum.”

At her briefing, Pirro said the gunman faces three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and a charge of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.

He could be charged with murder in the first degree if either of the Guard members does not survive their injuries, she said.

Patel described the shootings as a “heinous act of terrorism,” but neither he nor Pirro offered a possible motive.

The assailant appeared to have acted alone, said Jeff Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.

The suspect has been identified by authorities as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who lived in Washington state with his wife and five children.

Lakanwal, who was wounded in an exchange of gunfire before he was arrested, had been involved with U.S. partner forces during the war in Afghanistan, Patel said.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe told Fox News and the New York Times that Lakanwal had worked with CIA-backed local units in Afghanistan.

“He drove his vehicle cross-country from the state of Washington with the intended target of coming to our nation’s capital,” Pirro told the news conference.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, 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 after the U.S. withdrawal there.

President Donald Trump, who was at his Florida resort at the time of the attack, released a video statement late on Wednesday calling the shooting “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror.”

It was unclear if the shooting would lead to changes to how the Guard operates in cities. Members typically patrol in small groups, including on foot, mostly armed with pistols.

Lakanwal approved for U.S. asylum this year

Trump said his administration would “re-examine” all Afghans who came to the U.S. during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Pirro and Patel blamed the Biden administration for improperly vetting Lakanwal, although they offered no evidence to support this assertion.

A Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Lakanwal applied for asylum in December 2024 and was approved on April 23 this year, three months after Trump took office. Lakanwal, who resided in Washington state, had no known criminal history, the official said.

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

Vance defends immigration policy

Vice President JD Vance, who was in Kentucky on Wednesday, said on social media that the shooting proved 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.

Critics of the administration’s immigration policy say it has employed harsh and illegal tactics and swept up immigrants indiscriminately, including many with no criminal history and others in the U.S. legally.

The two Guard members from West Virginia were part of a militarized law enforcement mission ordered by Trump in August and challenged in court by Washington, D.C., officials. Trump ordered 500 more troops to be deployed in the capital in the wake of the shooting, joining about 2,200 already in the city as part of the president’s immigration and crime crackdown targeting Democratic-led cities.

Trump, a Republican, has suggested repeatedly that crime has disappeared from the capital as a result of the deployment, an assertion at odds with the police department’s official crime statistics. (Reporting by Leah Douglas, Jana Winter, Phil Stewart, Ted Hesson, Lucia Mutikani, Jasper Ward and Tim Reid; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Jeff Mason, Steve Gorman; Writing by Julia Harte and Rod Nickel; Editing by Ross Colvin and Deepa Babington)

Philadelphia role in Afghan resettlements

The Philadelphia region played a crucial role in supporting the largest resettlement effort since the end of the Vietnam War.

Philadelphia International Airport served as the nation’s main arrival point for more than 25,000 evacuees, about 1,500 of whom needed immediate medical attention for everything from diabetes to gunshot wounds. The flights to Philadelphia came from first-stop, emergency evacuation centers in Germany, Bahrain, Qatar, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and elsewhere.

Most arrivals to Philadelphia were bused from the airport to temporary living quarters at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in South Jersey.

At one point more than 11,000 Afghans were living in a tent city, christened “Liberty Village,” on the South Jersey base. The Trump administration recently designated the base as one of two military sites where it intends to holds immigration detainees.

Ultimately at least 600 evacuees were resettled in the Philadelphia area, many of them living in the Northeast, which already had a significant Afghan population.

Almost everyone who came to Philadelphia and to this country served the United States in a military, diplomatic, or development capacity, or was the family member of someone who did. Others worked in media, women’s organizations, or humanitarian groups that faced Taliban retaliation.

Inquirer staff writer Jeff Gammage contributed to this article.

WASHINGTON – Two National Guard soldiers were shot on Wednesday near the White House in what officials described as a targeted ambush, and the suspect was in custody after suffering gunshot wounds during the attack.

Investigators identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national from Washington State, according to a Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism, the official said.

Lakanwal came to the U.S. in 2021 on a special visa program for Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the Afghanistan war and were vulnerable to reprisals from the ruling Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal, the official said. But he overstayed his visa and is in the country illegally, according to the official.

President Donald Trump was in Florida at the time of the attack, which prompted the White House to go into lockdown as law enforcement from multiple federal and city agencies swarmed the area.

The two soldiers, members of the West Virginia National Guard, were part of a “high-visibility patrol” around 2:15 p.m. ET (1915 GMT) near the corner of 17th and I streets, a few blocks from the White House. The suspect came around a corner and “ambushed” them, Metropolitan Police Assistant Chief Jeff Carroll said at a press briefing.

After an exchange of gunfire, other National Guard troops were able to subdue the shooter, he said. The two wounded soldiers were in critical condition at local hospitals, FBI Director Kash Patel said.

“This is a targeted attack,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said at the briefing.

The shooter appeared to have acted alone, officials said.

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

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

He also ordered 500 more guard soldiers deployed to Washington, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters, joining about 2,200 already in the city as part of the president’s contentious immigration and crime crackdown targeting Democratic-led cities.

Witnesses describe chaotic scene

The shooting unfolded near Farragut Square, a popular lunch spot for office workers just a few blocks from the White House. The park, where 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.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene after shots were fired, with pedestrians fleeing.

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

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

Another witness, Emma McDonald, said she saw one of the soldiers carried away on a stretcher minutes after the shooting, his head covered in blood and an automated compression system attached to his chest.

National Guard soldiers have been in Washington since Trump’s initial deployment in August, a move that was opposed by local officials and criticized by Democrats. The guard troops in the city include contingents from the District of Columbia 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, an assertion at odds with the police department’s official crime statistics.