6 months ago
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A antheral accused of shooting 2 National Guard troops adjacent the White House pleaded not blameworthy connected Tuesday (December 2, 2025) to execution and battle charges during his archetypal quality earlier a justice via video from a infirmary bed.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan nationalist who was besides shot, faces charges stemming from the November 26 shooting that killed Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24. His lawyer entered a not blameworthy plea connected his behalf during a little tribunal proceeding successful Washington, D.C.
Ms. Beckstrom and Ms. Wolfe were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard for President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement surge successful the nation’s capital, which has flooded the metropolis with national agents and troops since August.
Authorities were investigating a imaginable motive for what they described arsenic an ambush-style attack.
A prosecutor, Ariel Dean, described the shooting arsenic a “shocking crime” and said it appears that Lakanwal “traversed the metropolis to immoderate extent” earlier approaching the troops and shooting them.
The magistrate justice ordered him detained, citing the “sheer panic that resulted” from Mr. Lakanwal’s actions.
The uncommon shooting of National Guard members connected American ungraded came amid tribunal fights and a broader nationalist argumentation statement astir the Trump administration’s usage of the subject to combat what officials formed arsenic an out-of-control transgression problem.
Mr. Lakanwal entered the U.S. successful 2021 done Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden medication programme that resettled Afghans aft the U.S. withdrawal from the country, officials said. Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved nether the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said successful a statement.
Mr. Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack” and criticised the Biden medication for enabling Afghans who worked with U.S. forces during the Afghanistan War to participate the U.S. The president has said helium wants to “permanently intermission migration” from poorer nations and expel millions of immigrants from the country.
