DC, National Guard and Rahmanullah Lakanwal
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President Donald Trump is blaming the Biden administration for this week’s shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC, in part by insisting that the suspect, a 29-year-old Afghan, was among millions of foreigners Biden allowed into the US without proper vetting.
An Afghan national was arrested in Texas for making a terroristic threat in a TikTok video this week — one day before another Afghan national shot two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.
The guardsmen from West Virginia were shot just north of the White House shortly before 3 p.m. Wednesday. The identity and motive of the suspected shooter remains unclear. Trump had deployed the National Guard to D.C. in August to crack down on crime. The move was controversial and angered some residents.
The suspect faces a first-degree murder charge that resulted in the fatal shooting of U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, arrived in the US through Operation Allies Welcome, the botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal plan that allowed roughly 90,000 Afghans to obtain Special Immigration Visas
U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom died on Thanksgiving, a day after she and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe were ambushed and shot.
Authorities said that the National Guard members injured in the shooting were part of a "high-visibility patrol" near the White House.
Biden’s Department of Homeland Security insisted Afghan evacuees were thoroughly vetted, but sources confirm the DC Guardsmen shooter was admitted through a Biden-era rapid resettlement program for Afghans.