The man accused of shooting two National Guard members who were patrolling downtown D.C. last week, killing one of them, appeared to study his targets from behind a street corner before ambushing them and yelling “Allahu akbar!” as he shot both victims in the head, according to charging documents filed Tuesday.
Prosecutors disclosed those details at the first court hearing for Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who appeared by video feed from his hospital bed, wincing in pain as he was formally charged with first-degree murder, assault with intent to kill while armed and two counts of possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has said more charges are forthcoming.
In documents filed in D.C. Superior Court, prosecutors offered their first detailed account of the midafternoon shooting blocks from the White House. Lakanwal, they said, drove across the country to D.C. armed with a .357-caliber revolver. He watched the National Guard contingent for about a minute, then fired at Spec. Sarah Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe as he turned a corner outside the Farragut West Metro station, prosecutors said.
A National Guard supervisor was talking to Beckstrom and Wolfe when both collapsed, and simultaneously saw Lakanwal “shooting a gun and screaming, ‘Allahu Akbar,’” prosecutors said. The phrase is Arabic for “God is great.”
The supervisor returned fire, striking Lakanwal. A witness then “jumped on” Lakanwal as he tried to reload his revolver. He was subdued and arrested, according to the charging documents.
Authorities continue to investigate possible motives for the Thanksgiving-eve shooting, which they say was carried out by a lone gunman who entered the country after years of cooperating with U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she is considering seeking the death penalty. Prosecutors would first need to transfer the case to federal district court and add a capital-eligible charge.
Trump administration officials said after the shooting that they would tighten restrictions on immigration and asylum. Lakanwal came to the United States in 2021 through a Biden administration program after the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. He had worked for an Afghan counterterrorism squad known as a “Zero Unit,” backed by the CIA and U.S. forces.
The Trump administration granted him asylum in April. Lakanwal, his wife and five children lived in northwest Washington state, where hundreds of Afghan refugees were resettled after the U.S. evacuation.
“He betrayed us,” Pirro told reporters after Tuesday’s hearing.
“There are certainly many more charges to come,” she said on Fox News last week.
Official documents list Lakanwal’s age as 29, but a former U.S. intelligence officer has said that is likely inaccurate. Lakanwal joined a CIA-backed unit in 2011, and the agency prohibits anyone under 18 from joining.
At Tuesday’s hearing, a defense attorney entered a not-guilty plea on Lakanwal’s behalf. Speaking through an interpreter, Lakanwal gave brief responses indicating he understood his rights to counsel and to remain silent, occasionally groaning and lifting the blankets to his face.
“I cannot open my eyes,” he said. “I have pain.”
Magistrate Judge Renee Raymond granted prosecutors’ request to detain Lakanwal pending trial despite his lack of a criminal history. Raymond described the government’s case as “exceedingly strong.” She set the next court date for Jan. 14.
“It is fairly clear that he came across the country – 3,000 miles – armed, with a specific purpose in mind,” Raymond said, citing surveillance footage that appeared to show Lakanwal waiting for an opening to ambush the Guard contingent.
President Donald Trump said last week that Beckstrom and Wolfe, both from West Virginia, “were shot at point-blank range in a monstrous, ambush-style attack.”
“We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden,” Trump said.
Both Guard members had been deployed to D.C. since August, when Trump ordered troops to the city as part of what his administration described as a crusade against crime.
Beckstrom, who joined the Guard in 2023 after graduating from high school, died on Thanksgiving in a hospital bed with her parents by her side. She was 20. The former prom queen had hoped to start a career in the FBI, said her ex-boyfriend Adam Carr. At first, she was nervous about deploying to the nation’s capital, but she grew to like it, he said.
“She is someone who is going to be remembered for a very, very long time,” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, R, said at a news conference Monday. “She had her life tragically cut short by this terrible act of terrorism.”
Wolfe, 24, remains hospitalized in critical condition. He responded when a nurse asked for a thumbs-up and wiggled his toes, Morrisey said. “We take that as a positive sign,” he said, before adding, “I’m not here to speculate.”
The Guardsman’s mother had one request, Morrisey said: “Please get the word out that my son Andrew needs prayer.”
Days before the shooting, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to withdraw more than 2,000 National Guard members deployed to the capital since August. The Justice Department said in a court filing Monday that it will appeal the ruling, which has not yet taken effect.
Trump ordered 500 more Guard members deployed to the District after the shooting, and D.C. police have been temporarily accompanying Guard members in the aftermath of last week’s attack, The Washington Post reported.
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