New details have emerged about Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington DC last week.
According to 2024 emails from a caseworker who helped his family after they fled Afghanistan, Lakanwal spent weeks alone in a dark room and suffered “manic episodes.”
Lakanwal is accused of carrying out an “ambush” that killed Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and seriously injured Andrew Wolfe, 24. Authorities said the 29-year-old entered the United States in 2021 under a program for Afghans who had worked with American troops.
Emails obtained by CBS News revealed that Lakanwal struggled with his mental health last year.
The caseworker wrote on January 11, 2024 that “World Relief volunteers are trying to fix things for that family, but I believe the father has mental health issues that are not being addressed and is not talking to anyone.”
In a separate email dated January 31, 2024, the caseworker said that Mr. Lakanwal “spends most of his time for weeks in his darkened bedroom, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife and older children.”
They also noted that he had “manic episodes for a week or two at a time where he would drive away in the family car” and periods when he would try to “make peace.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told NBC on Sunday that Lakanwal had been “radicalized since coming to this country” through connections in his community and home state.
Lakanwal entered the United States under the Biden-era Operation Allies Welcome program following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
He applied for asylum in 2024, which was granted earlier this year, and lived with his wife and five children in Bellingham, Washington, far from where the attack occurred.
The motive is not yet known, but emails sent to the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants offer insight into his life in the United States. A childhood friend told the New York Times that Lakanwal had mental health problems after serving in his unit in Afghanistan.
He was a member of “Unit Zero,” an Afghan intelligence and paramilitary force that worked with the CIA, a former Afghan defense official said. CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed that Lakanwal had worked with the US intelligence agency.
In response to the attack, President Donald Trump pledged to “permanently pause migration” from all “third world countries.”
The administration has suspended asylum decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is screened and vetted to the fullest extent possible,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said. Trump told reporters that the pause could last “for a long time.”
Lakanwal, who was shot during the attack, remains in hospital and faces murder charges.
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