Alleged shooter of two National Guard members of Rahmanullah Lakanwala struggled with mental illness, his inability to support his family, and, according to an Afghan veteran who fought alongside him, his pleas for help CIA remained unanswered.
Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, served in a CIA-backed Afghan unit known as “Zero units” in Kandahar. He faces first-degree murder charges after 20-year-old Army specialist Sarah Beckstrom died from wounds suffered in a shooting Wednesday near the Farragut West subway station in Washington, D.C. Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolf, 24, remains in critical condition.
Investigators are still working to establish a motive for the attack. Rolling Stone spoke to a former Afghan unit comrade who cited financial pressure and ongoing apparent mental illness as contributing factors. He also seems to have felt abandoned by the United States government.
“He's very sad [depressed]” said Lakanwala's Afghan unit comrade, who is not a native English speaker. “He is very worried. This problem, for example, he said: “I’ve been working for nine or ten years with [the] US government. [They] never answer my phone [call].'”
After the Taliban won America's longest war, Lakanwal moved to Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five sons in September 2021. His migration was facilitated by Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era initiative to resettle vulnerable Afghans, especially those who worked alongside U.S. troops and were being repressed by the Taliban.
The struggle to start over, leave the war behind and find a job was always present. Lakanwal was fired from his job at a laundromat because he did not have a work permit, even though the Trump administration approved him for asylum and allowed him to work, according to a former unit comrade who fought alongside him for more than a decade.
In September, Lakanwala's nephew asked the Bellingham Housing Authority to approve a move closer to the Afghan community. Handwritten application, verified Rolling Stonecited Lakanwala's isolation, lack of English language skills, and the need to find work in a larger community such as Seattle. Lakanwal did not feel safe in Bellingham after he was attacked when a man sprayed something in his eyes and required hospitalization, according to the statement.
“This experience has caused him stress and fear, and he does not feel comfortable continuing to live in this city,” the nephew wrote. “It is very important for him to be close to his community and relatives to feel safe and to be able to find a job so he can support his family.”
About a month ago, Lakanwal told a squadmate that his inability to work due to lack of immigration papers meant his family couldn't afford rent or food. According to his squadmate, he borrowed money from friends and former squad members and during the conversation burst into tears of disappointment and despair.
“Every time it’s like you’re watching [for] anyone [to] someone help me with the documents [to] help him pay the rent, he won’t work,” said a colleague from the Afghan unit.
His squadmate said that in June, Lakanwal sought help from a CIA program designed to help Zero Unit veterans with immigration issues. Rolling Stone reviewed a screenshot of a group chat in June where Zero Unit veterans shared information with a CIA representative about current issues. Lakanwal posted messages asking for help. His last message went unanswered and was deleted by the chat administrator.
Rolling Stone called a CIA representative in a text chat, who said it was the wrong number. A request for comment from the CIA was not returned.
Lakanwal, according to the Associated Press. report and, as a co-worker confirmed, he went from “long, dark periods of isolation,” sometimes going for weeks without even speaking to his family, to “manic” episodes during which he would suddenly go on week-long cross-country trips, traveling to places like Chicago or Arizona.
The community advocate feared Lakanwal was suicidal and sought help from a refugee organization in January 2024, according to the AP. The AP said it reviewed emails sent to the United States Committee on Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) detailing the problems. USCRI reportedly visited Bellingham in March 2024, but Lakanwal and his family refused assistance, according to the AP report.
After the shooting in Washington, President Donald Trump called it a “terrorist attack” and announced full vetting of all Afghan nationals admitted to the United States under the Biden administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Vice President J.D. Vance and FBI Director Kash Patel then collectively laid blame on former President Biden, saying Lakanwal and other refugees were subject to “no vetting” or “zero vetting,” often citing that the shooting suspect was “massively paroled in the United States.”
“This man, like so many others, should never have been allowed to come here.” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said. “Our citizens and service members deserve far better than to endure the ongoing consequences of the Biden administration’s disastrous failures.”
But Lakanwal, known as “Shafiq” during his time with the CIA, faced more scrutiny than most Afghans. Nobody just joined the CIA's Unit Zero. The soldier had to be recommended by a close family member or friend. The CIA then vetted each member before even offering probation. The vetting process was so successful that Zero Units was never subject to an insider attack when Afghan soldiers turned against American advisers.
Positions in Zero Units were in demand due to higher pay, better training and the opportunity to work alongside elite US operators. In subsequent years, it also became possible to immigrate and resettle in the United States after at least one year of service and approval from the US government.
In the final days of the war in 2021, approximately 81,000 Afghan immigrants, including nearly 10,000 members of the Zero Units along with many of their family members, were reportedly evacuated by the CIA and resettled throughout the United States. After arriving in the United States, Zero Unit veterans were again screened before receiving special immigrant visas reserved for Afghan and Iraqi nationals who worked for the U.S. government.
I've been working on a documentary about Zero Units for the past year. For this story, I spoke with community members who didn't feel comfortable speaking out for fear of reprisals. They all condemned Lankanwala's actions and tried to understand why he allegedly attacked the Americans. Troop Zero soldiers protected CIA officers on missions and at their forward bases, so attacks on American military personnel were against their code. Now they fear his actions will make life more difficult in the United States.
The Afghan Zero Unit community is very close-knit. At one point, during a trip to Texas last year, I watched as a group of veterans took over a hookah restaurant where more than 20 people sat at one table, laughing and smoking. Bound by battle and the pain of losing their country, they are part of a lost generation of Afghans who believed America's promise of democracy and sacrificed everything for it.
But most of all, the Zero Unit veterans were heartbroken by Ratcliffe's comments that they should never have been allowed to come to the United States because, after almost 20 years of fighting side by side with the CIA, they were the next casualty on the altar of expediency. The only certainty about US foreign policy, from the last helicopter to fly out of Saigon in 1975, through the Kurds after the Gulf War in 1991, to the 2020 Doha Accords and the 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan, is that American loyalty has an expiration date.
