Image source, Reuters

It's a day on, and we now know a bit more about the shooting of two members of the National Guard in Washington DC.

Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro has named the two victims as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24. The suspect - 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal - drove thousands of miles from Washington state before the attack, Pirro said.

It was also revealed that the suspect worked with the CIA in Afghanistan - and helped guard US forces at Kabul airport as thousands tried to flee the country before it fell to the Taliban.

For his own protection, he had been brought to the US under a special immigration scheme, says the CIA's director.

However, there's still a lot we don't know.

Officials say it’s too early to ascribe a motive to the attack, though there is an "investigation of terrorism".

We also await updates on the two victims of Wednesday's attack, who have had surgery but remain in critical condition.

We're ending our live coverage here, but you can keep up to date with all the developments on our website.

• National Guard shooting suspect worked with CIA in Afghanistan
• What we know about shooting of National Guards in Washington DC
• Why is Trump trying to deploy the National Guard to US cities?

What we know about Afghan vetting under Joe Bidenpublished at 18:05 GMT 27 November

18:05 GMT 27 November

By Lucy Gilder

There have been repeated claims that the suspect in Wednesday’s Washington DC shooting entered the US under a Biden-era Afghan resettlement scheme that did not carry out adequate vetting.

At an FBI news conference earlier today, US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro said “this is what happens in this country when people are allowed in who are not properly vetted”.

And in a press release, external shortly after the shooting, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the suspect “is one of thousands of unvetted Afghan nationals let into the country under the Biden administration's Operation Allies Welcome program.”

More than 190,000 Afghans have been resettled under this scheme , externaland another programme called Enduring Welcome following the Taliban takeover in 2021, including those who worked on behalf of the US government.

The official government website, external for Operation Allies Welcome mentions a “rigorous” and “multi-layered” vetting process, which involved collecting biometric information such as fingerprints and other biographic data from Afghans before they were allowed to enter the country.

However, a 2024 audit, external carried out by a US government watchdog, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), found weaknesses in the government’s ability to identify potentially negative information (such as national security concerns) about some Afghans who had entered the country under Operation Allies Welcome.

Earlier this year another OIG audit of the scheme , externalcommended the FBI for its role in screening Afghans for national security risks.

Global advocacy organisation International Refugee Assistance Project has condemned the shooting and responded to Trump's plans to pause immigration applications filed by Afghan nationals.

"Afghans seeking protection - including those who served alongside US forces - should not be abandoned," it says.

The group is calling for the US government to find a "safe" way to process these applications "with thorough vetting, rather than leaving them in limbo based solely on their nationality."

Kristina Volk
BBC World Service

Sadia, which is not her real name, worked for the US government in Afghanistan on educating women before the Taliban re-took power in 2021.

She has since been waiting for her asylum applications to be approved. She spoke to the BBC by phone from Afghanistan where she is in hiding from the Taliban.

"I am too worried, it's so scary. I don't know what to say," she says, when asked about the US government's decision to suspend all immigration requests from Afghans.

"Everybody inside and outside of Afghanistan waiting on their cases are worried and going through a bad situation."

The uncertainty of not knowing what will happen makes her and her four children anxious, she says. They are crying and depressed.

Sadia acknowledges that what happened in DC is very sad but she feels the actions of one criminal should not mean all Afghans be blamed.

"We supported the US government in Afghanistan. We helped them.” Now she feels like the clampdown on Afghan immigration is criminalising all Afghans.

Family share new image of suspectpublished at 17:38 GMT 27 November

17:38 GMT 27 November

By Joshua Cheetham and Reha Kansara

We’re continuing to look for information about the Afghan man accused of carrying out the shooting.

Our colleagues at BBC Afghan have been sent new pictures of Rahmanullah Lakanwal by a member of his family in Afghanistan and by a former military commander who served alongside him.

Using facial recognition software, alongside visual comparisons between the picture provided by the FBI and those from Afghanistan, BBC Verify has confirmed that they all show the same man.

Image source, Family Handout

Hafizullah Maroof and Sayed Abdullah Nizami
BBC News

Rahmanullah Lakanwal helped guard US forces at Kabul airport as thousands scrambled to escape Afghanistan before the Taliban took power, a former military commander who served alongside him has told the BBC.

The father-of-five had been recruited to Unit 03 of the Kandahar Strike Force nine years earlier. 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.

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.

Earlier, FBI Director Kash Patel and US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro provided an update on Wednesday’s shooting of two National Guard members in Washington DC. Here's a quick look at what we learned.

Here’s what we know so far:

• The victims have been identified as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24. Both are uniformed members of the West Virginia National Guard
• They remain in a critical condition after one was struck down and shot again while another was shot several times
• US officials have named the suspect as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal – an Afghan who lived in Washington state, and who previously worked with the US in Afghanistan
• The suspected shooter drove from his home state to Washington DC before the attack on Wednesday
• Lakanwal faces charges of assault with intent to kill while armed, but if either of the guards die this will be upgraded to murder in the first degree, Pirro said
• The shooter was using a type of repeating handgun known as a six shooter, which can fire six shots without reloading

What we still don’t know:

• Officials said it’s too early to ascribe a motive to the attack, but Patel added there is currently an “ongoing investigation of terrorism”
• We are waiting for further details on the relationship the suspect had in Afghanistan with partner forces which is being fully investigated
• This includes any associates of Lakanwal's either overseas or in the US

The founder and president of the #AfghanEvac coalition tells BBC Persian that the person responsible for yesterday's shooting "deserves to have full accountability" - but says that "the entire Afghan community shouldn't suffer because of the actions of this one deranged man".

Shawn VanDiver notes that suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal had been "vetted multiple times by multiple agencies", adding that reviews of the vetting, screening and admission processes used during the Afghan evacuation had "found no systematic vetting failures".

The attack on two National Guards troops should not be politicised, he says, before adding: "It was during the Biden administration that he came here, during the withdrawal, but the Trump administration granted him asylum."

Image source, Getty Images

A little earlier, CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed that the suspected attacker was "a member a partner force" in Kandahar, in Afghanistan.

After the US military went into Afghanistan, it worked with other Nato allies to develop new Afghan security forces.

These were comprised of Afghan nationals, and by the end of 2014 they had taken responsibility for the security of Afghanistan back from international troops.

These forces were made up of a whole patchwork of units, with various responsibilities, including combat and intelligence.

They were supported by a much smaller number of US troops, who largely offered training and other non-combat support.

• We have more on the history of US involvement in Afghanistan in our earlier post

Nomia Iqbal
North America correspondent

This horrific shooting and the identity of the suspect has turned this into a huge political story, with the safety of a refugee program under President Biden brought into sharp focus.

It appears that Rahmanullah Lakanwal was brought to the US under the “Operation Allies Welcome” program designed to help those Afghans who risked their lives assisting US troops in Afghanistan.

#AfghanEvac has been giving more details - they are a non-partisan, self-organized coalition of more than 200 groups and organizations. Their members are veterans, current and former members of national security who worked with the Biden administration to help with settlements during withdrawal in 2021.

They say Lakanwal previously served in NDS-03, one of Afghanistan’s elite counterterrorism units operated by the CIA, with direct US intelligence and military support.

They add that he arrived under humanitarian parole - the temporary authority used to evacuate tens of thousands of American citizens, lawful permanent residents, Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants, and at-risk Afghan partners - and that he was later granted asylum in April 2025.

The motivation of Lakanwal - who drove more than 40 hours from Washington State to carry out the attack - is unknown but #AfghanEvac says his case “appears to be a tragic outlier — not a pattern".

They’ve rejected “vetting failures” as premature and not backed by evidence, defending Afghan evacuees in general as having exceptionally “low involvement in violent crime".

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, the alleged shooter had previously worked with the CIA in Afghanistan. Let's take a quick look at the US's recent history with the country.

Why was the US military in Afghanistan?

• In late 2001, the US was pursuing Osama Bin Laden, the leader of the Islamist military group al-Qaeda, which had just carried out the 9/11 attacks
• Bin Laden had been operating from Afghanistan at the time but the Taliban - who ran the country - refused to hand him over. The US military was deployed to the country and removed the Taliban from power
• The US, and other allied countries, kept a significant military presence in Afghanistan until 2014, when thousands of international troops were withdrawn. Those that remained were largely focused on supporting the Afghan security forces

When, and why, did it withdraw?

• In February 2020, the US and the Taliban signed a deal under which Washington agreed to withdraw all troops
• President Joe Biden set a deadline to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan by 11 September 2021 - he faced widespread criticism for the swift withdrawal
• The Taliban seized back the entirety of Afghanistan in just over a month, with its capital - Kabul - falling on 15 August 2021
• The US offered special visas to Afghan nationals who worked directly with the US military and feared retribution from the Taliban as a result of that co-operation

After 29-year-old suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal was identified as an Afghan national yesterday, the US suspended all immigration requests from Afghans.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services said the decision was made pending a review of "security and vetting protocols".

Reacting from Mar-a-Lago, US President Donald Trump labelled the attack an "act of terror", adding that he would take steps to remove foreigners "from any country who does not belong here".

Lakanwal is believed to have arrived in the US in September 2021 alongside tens of thousands of others who fled Afghanistan.

They were welcomed to the US under Joe Biden's programme, which followed the Taliban's capture of the country after the chaotic withdrawal of US forces.

But, Trump said following the shooting that the US "must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden".

• We've more detail on Trump's response to the attack in our news story

US Attorney for DC, Jeanine Pirro, outlines how the incident unfolded yesterday - the day before Thanksgiving.

We've just received the first images of the two victims of yesterday's attack.

They are National Guard members Andrew Wolfe (24) and Sarah Beckstrom (20).

Image source, Reuters

During the news conference, US officials displayed a picture of the suspect. His name is Rahmanullah Lakanwal - an Afghan who lived in Washington State, and who previously worked with the US in Afghanistan.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

We can now bring you comments from CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who told CBS, the BBC's US partner, that the alleged shooter was allowed to enter the US "due to his prior work with the US government".

"In the wake of the disastrous Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation," Ratcliffe says.

FBI Director Kash Patel says "there is confirmation now that the subject had relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces," adding that the US is "fully investigating that aspect of his background".

Image source, Reuters

Here's a summary of what we just heard from FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro:

• The two victims of yesterday's shooting were named as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24
• They were "ambushed" in a brazen attack, Jeanine Pirro said. They are both in critical condition after one was struck down and shot again while another was shot several times
• The suspect, 29-year-old Afghan Rahmanullah Lakanwal drove from Washington state before the attack and "had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces" before moving to the US, Patel said
• Pirro said Lakanwal faces charges of assault with intent to kill while armed, but this will be upgraded to murder in the first degree if either of the guards passes away
• It is too early to ascribe a motive to the attack, officials said, but Patel added that there is currently an "ongoing investigation of terrorism"

Image source, Reuters

Back to FBI Director Kash Patel who says that the FBI was able to track down the last known residence of the suspect.

Patel says they seized "numerous electronic devices" there including mobile phones, laptops, and iPads which are currently being analysed.

The team have followed leads that led them to San Diego, he says, adding that "we will go anywhere in the country or the world where the evidence leads us".

With that, the press conference comes to an end.

Image source, Reuters

Pirro says the shooter was using a 357 Smith & Wesson revolver. She says that's a "six shooter – that kind of tells us how many shots he had".

Pirro raises her voice when a journalist asks her whether the National Guard should have been stationed in Washington DC in the first place.

She says: "I don't even want to talk about whether they should have been there.

"We better kiss the ground and thank God that the president said it's time to bring in more law enforcement to make sure that a city that had the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country, that that violence was quelled."

• For context, a six shooter is a repeating handgun with six chambers - meaning it can fire six shots without reloading.