He came around a corner and ambushed them without warning
Two West Virginia National Guard soldiers were ambushed and shot near the White House on Wednesday afternoon; both in critical condition after exchange of gunfire. Suspect is 29-year-old Afghan national who entered US on special visa in 2021 but overstayed; attack being investigated as terrorism with shooter acting alone.
- Two West Virginia National Guard soldiers shot near Farragut Square, blocks from the White House, on Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. ET
- Suspect identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, Afghan national who overstayed special visa issued in 2021
- Both soldiers in critical condition; attack being investigated as terrorism
- Trump ordered 500 additional National Guard deployed to Washington, bringing total to approximately 2,700
Two National Guard soldiers were shot in a targeted ambush near the White House; suspect identified as Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, being investigated for terrorism.
Two soldiers from the West Virginia National Guard lay bleeding on a Washington street on Wednesday afternoon, victims of what law enforcement would quickly characterize as a deliberate, targeted attack. The shooting happened near Farragut Square, just blocks from the White House, in an area where office workers grab lunch and tourists pass through on their way to monuments. The time was 2:15 p.m. Eastern. Within hours, the suspect was in custody, wounded from the gunfire exchange that followed the initial ambush, and federal investigators had opened a terrorism investigation.
The suspect was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national from Washington State. He had arrived in the United States in 2021 under a special visa program created for Afghans who had worked alongside American forces during the war and faced danger from the Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal. But Lakanwal had overstayed that visa and was in the country illegally, according to a Justice Department official. The two soldiers he shot were part of a high-visibility patrol when he came around a corner and opened fire. Other National Guard troops nearby returned fire and subdued him. Both soldiers were rushed to local hospitals in critical condition.
President Trump was in Florida at his Palm Beach resort when the shooting occurred. The White House went into lockdown as federal and local law enforcement flooded the area. Vice President JD Vance was in Kentucky. Within hours, Trump posted on social media, calling the shooter an "animal" who would "pay a very steep price," and he announced that 500 additional National Guard soldiers would be deployed to Washington, bringing the total presence in the capital to roughly 2,700. These troops had been stationed in the city since August as part of Trump's push to address what he characterized as a crime crisis in Democratic-led cities—a claim at odds with official police statistics.
Witnesses to the shooting described a scene of sudden chaos. Mike Ryan, 55, was heading to buy lunch when he heard what sounded like gunfire. He ran half a block, heard another volley, then returned to find two National Guard soldiers on the ground across the street. People were attempting to resuscitate one of them while other guard troops pinned the shooter to the pavement. Emma McDonald, another witness, saw one of the wounded soldiers carried away on a stretcher minutes later, his head bleeding heavily, an automated compression device working on his chest.
Farragut Square itself is a study in ordinary urban life—a park wrapped in holiday wreaths and bows, bordered by fast-casual restaurants, a coffee shop, and two metro stations. It is where the rhythms of the city intersect: workers on lunch breaks, commuters passing through, the seasonal decorations suggesting a moment of relative calm before Thanksgiving. The shooting shattered that calm in seconds.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and Metropolitan Police Assistant Chief Jeff Carroll both emphasized at a press briefing that this was a targeted attack, not a random act. The shooter appeared to have acted alone. The investigation into whether Lakanwal had connections to any extremist organization or ideology was ongoing, but the deliberate nature of the ambush—the way he came around a corner and fired on soldiers he appeared to have been waiting for—suggested calculation rather than impulse.
The deployment of National Guard troops to Washington had been contentious since its inception. Local officials opposed it, and Democrats criticized it as an overreach. The soldiers came from eight states: the District of Columbia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama. Trump had suggested repeatedly that their presence had eliminated crime from the capital. The shooting on Wednesday, and the decision to add 500 more troops in response, suggested a different narrative was taking shape—one in which the presence of military personnel in the nation's capital, far from resolving security concerns, had become itself a flashpoint.
Citas Notables
This is a targeted attack.— Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser
The suspect came around a corner and ambushed them.— Metropolitan Police Assistant Chief Jeff Carroll
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does it matter that he came in on a special visa program? Doesn't that detail get lost in the terrorism investigation?
It matters because it shows the gap between intention and reality. The visa existed to protect people who'd helped us. He overstayed it. That's not a security failure in the visa program itself—it's a failure in tracking and enforcement. It complicates the narrative.
The soldiers were on a "high-visibility patrol." What does that mean?
It means they were meant to be seen. Visible deterrent. Which makes the ambush even more pointed—he found them precisely because they were supposed to be obvious.
Trump called him an "animal." Did anyone else use that language?
Not in the reporting. Trump was the only one to use that word. Everyone else—the mayor, the police, the FBI—stuck to procedural language. "Targeted attack." "Terrorism investigation." Trump's language was different.
The two soldiers are in critical condition. Do we know what happened to them after?
The source doesn't say. That's the gap. We know they were wounded, rushed to hospitals, in critical condition. But the story ends there. The reader doesn't know if they survived.
Why mention the holiday wreaths at Farragut Square?
Because it grounds the violence in a specific moment. It's late November. The city is decorated for Thanksgiving. The contrast between that seasonal normalcy and sudden gunfire matters. It's not an abstract location—it's a place where people were living their ordinary Wednesday.
Does the story explain why Lakanwal might have done this?
No. That's what's still being investigated. We know he was targeted, that he acted alone, that it's being treated as terrorism. But the motive—whether ideological, personal, something else—that's still unknown.