FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro held a press conference on Thanksgiving, revealing a slew of details about the terrorist attack on National Guard members.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot in the head on Wednesday while patrolling the street immediately outside the White House in Washington, D.C. Both of them are now in critical condition.
“If one of them is to pass — and God forbid that happens — this is a murder one. Period. End of the story,” Pirro, the US Attorney for D.C., told reporters on Thursday.
Pirro added that both Beckstrom and Wolfe had been sworn in for duty less than 24 hours before they were shot.
Authorities have identified 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, as the shooter. He was wounded during the attack and transported to the hospital.
Lakanwal allegedly drove to D.C. from his home in Seattle, Washington, before committing the attack. He is facing three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and one count of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Patel said his bureau is undertaking a “coast-to-coast investigation” based out of D.C., due to the cross-country nature of Lakanwal’s route.
“This is an ongoing investigation of terrorism, make no mistake about it,” Patel said. “We have also executed multiple search warrants around the country, to include the subject’s last known residence, which is in state of Washington.”
President Donald Trump has blamed the violence on former President Joe Biden’s administration, saying they let “unknown and unvetted foreigners” into the country.
Lakanwal was let into the country in 2021 as part of Operation Allies Welcome, a program that brought 76,000 evacuated Afghans into the U.S. on humanitarian grounds. The government granted him asylum status earlier this year.
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki assured reporters in 2021 that the thousands of Afghan refugees would be thoroughly screened before arriving in the U.S.
“I can absolutely assure you that no one is coming into the United States of America who has not been through a thorough screening and background check process,” Psaki said at the time.
Patel told reporters at the Thursday press conference that Department of War officials have informed him of evidence that “the suspect had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces” and the FBI is “looking into it.”
Asked at the Thursday press conference whether the U.S. government missed any warning signs when allowing Lakanwal into the country, Patel responded: “You miss all the signs when you do zero vetting.”
ALLEGED DC NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING SUSPECT PREVIOUSLY WORKED FOR CIA
He added, “The prior administration made the decision to allow thousands of people into this country without doing a single piece of background checking or vetting — that’s how you miss every single sign.”
Vice President JD Vance also blamed the Biden administration on social media following the shooting, writing: “I remember back in 2021 criticizing the Biden policy of opening the floodgate to unvetted Afghan refugees. Friends sent me messages calling me a racist. It was a clarifying moment. They shouldn’t have been in our country.”
