Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said at a Thursday news briefing that the National Guard members shot were Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24.
The guard members were hospitalized in critical condition after Wednesday afternoon’s shooting.
Pirro said that the suspect, 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, drove across the country from Washington state to launch an “ambush-style” attack with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver.
The shooting happened roughly two blocks northwest of the White House near a metro station.
At least one of the guard members exchanged gunfire with the shooter, said one law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The suspect, who was in custody, was also shot and had wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening.
Hearing gunfire, other troops in the area ran over and held down the gunman after he was shot, according to Jeffery Carroll, an executive assistant D.C. police chief.
“It appears to be a lone gunman that raised a firearm and ambushed these members of the National Guard,” Carroll said, adding that it was not clear whether one of the guard members or a law enforcement officer shot the suspect.
“At this point, we have no other suspects,” Carroll said at a news conference.
Social media video shared in the immediate aftermath showed first responders performing CPR on one of the troops and treating the other on a sidewalk covered in broken glass.
The suspect currently faces charges of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. Pirro said that “it’s too soon to say” what the suspect’s motives were.
The charges could be upgraded, Pirro said, adding, “We are praying that they survive and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree. But make no mistake, if they do not, that will certainly be the charge.”
The rare shooting of National Guard members on American soil, on the day before Thanksgiving, comes amid court fights and a broader public policy debate about the Trump administration’s use of the military to combat what officials cast as an out-of-control crime problem.
The Trump administration quickly ordered 500 more National Guard members to Washington.
Lakamal had been living in Bellingham, Washington, about 79 miles north of Seattle, with his wife and five children, said his former landlord, Kristina Widman.
He entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, officials said.
The initiative brought roughly 76,000 people to the U.S., many of whom had worked alongside U.S. troops and diplomats as interpreters and translators. It has since faced intense scrutiny from Trump and his allies, congressional Republicans and some government watchdogs over gaps in the vetting process and the speed of admissions, even as advocates say it offered a lifeline to people at risk of Taliban reprisals.
Prior to his 2021 arrival in the U.S., the suspect worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” John Ratcliffe, the spy agency’s director, said in a statement.
He did not specify what work Lakamal did, but said the relationship “ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation” of U.S. service members from Afghanistan.
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