United States President Donald Trump has announced the death of one of two National Guard soldiers shot near the White House, as his Government said it would respond by reviewing the permanent residency status of immigrants from 19 countries, including Afghanistan.
The FBI, meanwhile, began an international terrorism investigation as new details emerged about the alleged gunman, a 29-year-old Afghan national who had served with US troops in Afghanistan.
The shooting on Wednesday (US time), which officials described as an “ambush-style” attack, brings together three politically explosive issues: Trump’s controversial use of the military at home, immigration, and the legacy of the US war in Afghanistan.
“I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation at the terrorist attack yesterday in our nation’s capital,” Trump said in a Thanksgiving video call with US troops.
He called the suspect a “savage monster” before announcing that Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old West Virginia National Guard member deployed in Washington as part of Trump’s crackdown on crime, had died from her injuries.
Trump linked the shooting and his decision to send hundreds of National Guard troops to the city.
“If they weren’t effective, you probably wouldn’t have had this done,” he said, adding: “Maybe this man was upset because he couldn’t practise crime.”
Joseph Edlow, Trump’s director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said he had ordered a “full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern”.
His agency later pointed to a list of 19 countries – including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran and Myanmar – facing US travel restrictions under a previous order from Trump in June.
The Trump administration had earlier ordered an immediate halt to the processing of immigration applications from Afghanistan.
The other soldier injured in Wednesday’s attack, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was “fighting for his life”, Trump said. The suspected shooter was also in a serious condition.
The US attorney for Washington DC, Jeanine Pirro, said the suspected assailant – identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal – had been living in the western state of Washington and had driven across the country to the nation’s capital.
In what she called a “brazen and targeted” attack, Pirro said the gunman opened fire with a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver on a group of guardsmen on patrol just a few blocks from the White House.
The suspect was charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill – charges that Pirro said would immediately be upgraded to first-degree murder if any of the guardsmen died.
Officials said they still had no clear understanding of the motive behind the shooting.
CIA director John Ratcliffe said the suspect had been part of a CIA-backed “partner force” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, and had been brought to the United States as part of a programme to evacuate Afghans who had worked with the agency.
The heads of the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security and other senior Trump appointees all insisted that Lakanwal had been granted unvetted access to the US because of lax asylum policies after the chaotic final US withdrawal from Afghanistan under former President Joe Biden.
But AfghanEvac, a group that helped resettle Afghans in the US after the military withdrawal, said they undergo “some of the most extensive security vetting” of any migrants.
The group noted Lakanwal had been granted asylum in April 2025, under the Trump administration, and would be eligible to request permanent residency a year later.
“This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” said its president, Shawn VanDiver.
After the shooting, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced 500 more troops would deploy to Washington, bringing the total to 2500.
Trump has sent troops to several cities, all run by Democrats, including Washington, Los Angeles and Memphis. The move has prompted multiple lawsuits and allegations of authoritarian overreach by the White House.
– Agence France-Presse