On a crisp autumn afternoon on Nov. 26, two blocks from the White House, the crack of gunfire shattered the routine of National Guard troops Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe. Beckstrom, a 20-year-old enlistee from West Virginia deployed to bolster federal law enforcement, succumbed to her wounds hours later. Wolfe, shot in the leg and torso, fought for his life in a Washington hospital. The suspect is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who entered the United States in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden-era evacuation effort, and secured asylum in April 2025. Lakanwal, a former CIA-backed paramilitary fighter, had no prior criminal record but carried the scars of a war-torn homeland.