Prosecutors have officially filed murder charges against the alleged shooter accused of killing one National Guard soldier and wounding another in Washington, DC last Wednesday.
According to a criminal complaint, Rahmanullah Lakanwal shouted “Allahu Akbar” while firing and reloading after a Guardsman shot and wounded him.
Lakanwal, who arrived in the United States from Afghanistan in 2021, pleaded not guilty during a virtual court appearance from a hospital bed, the BBC’s US partner CBS reported. The charges against him include first-degree murder and assault with intent to kill.
The Trump administration halted all asylum decisions after the shooting and ordered a review of Afghan refugees in the United States.
National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from her injuries, while fellow officer Andrew Wolfe, 24, was seriously injured and remains in the hospital. Both were on a mission to the US capital from West Virginia.
The complaint, which includes photographs of security camera footage, lays out what prosecutors say happened last Wednesday near a subway station while Beckstrom and Wolfe were patrolling with other National Guard troops.
The couple were wearing military uniforms around TWO? blocks from the White House around 2:15 p.m. speaking with two other Guard members when gunfire erupted.
A supervisor heard gunshots and saw Wolfe and Beckstrom collapse. “He immediately pulled out his service weapon and confronted the defendant,” the complaint states.
“During the subsequent shooting, the defendant was shot and fell to the ground.”
The supervisor said the shooter stopped shooting and was trying to reload when another Guard member jumped on him, and Secret Service officers helped subdue the suspect, the complaint says.
Both Wolfe and Beckstrom were shot in the head and rushed to the hospital. Beckstrom died the next day. An autopsy determined that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the back of the head and the manner of death was “homicide.”
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Monday described Wolfe’s condition as “positive” and said he responded to a nurse’s instructions. Morrisey also asked for prayers “as Andrew fights to survive.”
A judge said the case against Lakanwal was “extremely strong,” according to CBS, and ordered him held without bail.
Lakanwal worked with the CIA in Afghanistan and fled to the United States after the Taliban overthrew the civilian government in 2021. US officials feared that people like Lankanwal would be targeted by the Taliban because of their connections to US forces.
Officials told CBS that his 2024 asylum request was granted earlier this year and that he lived in Bellingham, Washington state, with his wife and five children.
Lakanwal was left isolated from society and isolated in a room for weeks, according to emails from a social worker last year who said they thought he had a mental health illness.
