Suspect in National Guard attack struggled with ’dark isolation’

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The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members a block from the White House struggled for years, unable to hold down a job and toggling between long, dark periods of isolation and sudden week-long cross-country trips. Rahmanullah Lakanwala's behavior deteriorated so dramatically that a public defender sought help from a refugee organization, fearing he was suicidal.

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Emails obtained by The Associated Press are mounting warnings about an asylum seeker whose erratic behavior raised alarms long before the attack that rocked the nation's capital on Wednesday, the eve of Thanksgiving. Previously unreported concerns provide the clearest insight into how he struggled in his new life in the United States.

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Yet when community members working with Afghan families in Washington state saw news reports that Lakanwal was named as a suspect in the attack, they said they were stunned, unable to reconcile the violence with memories of Lakanwal playing with his young sons. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to share undisclosed details while cooperating with the FBI in the investigation.

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West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in the shooting, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was seriously injured. Investigators are establishing the motive for the attack.

Lakanwal, 29, is charged with first-degree murder.

In Afghanistan, Lakanwal worked in a special unit of the Afghan Army known as Force Zero. The units were supported by the CIA. He entered the United States in 2021 as part of Operation Welcome Allies, a program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the withdrawal of American troops. Many of them worked alongside American troops and diplomats.

He resettled with his wife and five sons, all under 12, in Bellingham, Washington, but encountered difficulties, according to a community member who shared emails that were sent to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nonprofit group that provides services to refugees.

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“Rahmanullah has not been a man, a father and a breadwinner since March last year, 03/2023. He quit his job that month and his behavior has changed greatly,” the person wrote in an email in January 2024.

The emails described a man who struggled to assimilate, unable to hold down a steady job or attend English classes, while he alternated between “periods of dark isolation and reckless travel.” He sometimes spent weeks in his “dark room, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife or older children.” At one point in 2023, the family faced eviction after months of not paying rent.

A community member in an interview said he was worried that Lakanwal was so depressed that he would end up harming himself. But the community member saw no indication that Lakanwal would commit violence against another person.

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Lakanwala's family members often sent his young sons to his room to bring him his phone or messages because he wouldn't answer anyone else, one email said. A couple of times, when his wife left him with the children for a week on a trip to visit relatives, the children did not bathe, did not change clothes, and did not eat well. Their school expressed concern about the situation.

But then there were the “in-between” weeks as Lacanwal tried to turn things around and “do the right thing,” according to the email, by re-engaging with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services as required by his entry into the United States.

“But this quickly escalated into 'manic' episodes lasting one or two weeks, in which he would leave in the family car and drive non-stop,” the email said. One day he went to Chicago and another time to Arizona.

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Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said last week that Lacanwal drove across the country from Bellingham, which is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Seattle, to the nation's capital.

In response to the two emails, the United States Committee on Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) visited Bellingham a few weeks later, in March 2024, and attempted to make contact with Lakanwal and his family, according to a community member who, after a lack of any updates, was left with the impression that Lakanwal had refused their help.

A request for comment and clarification from USCRI was not immediately returned.

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