First National Guard shooting victim named as Trump condemns ‘act of terror’ in Washington DC – live updates

Advocacy group AfghanEvac has condemned the attack in Washington D.C. but warned that the incident should not be used to “isolate or harm” Afghans who have resettled in the U.S.

“We reject and condemn anyone who uses, or seeks to use, violence, and we stand with every American who is horrified and saddened by this crime,” said Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based group.

In a statement shared online he said that the perpetrator should face “full accountability and prosecution under the law” and that “this individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.”

“Those who would twist this moment to attack Afghan families aren’t seeking safety or justice – they’re exploiting division and endangering all of us,” he said.

VanDiver added Afghan immigrants and wartime allies who resettle in the U.S. undergo extensive security vetting.

A few more details on precisely what happened at the Metro station here from CBS News’s Jennifer Jacobs, who reports that the attacker discharged all four shots from his own gun at the two Guards before taking one of the downed officer’s weapons and continuing firing, until he was taken out by a third Guard.

This is what the secretary of war had to say in response to yesterday’s attack.

The Department of Homeland Security has taken an Afghan national into custody over yesterday’s shooting, with the suspect since identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old who has been living in Washington state since 2021 and had no known criminal history prior to yesterday’s incident.

He is understood to have entered the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program to resettle thousands of Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the war in Afghanistan and feared reprisals from Taliban forces once they retook control of their homeland after the American withdrawal four years ago.

However, as we saw earlier, CNN is reporting that Lakanwal submitted a new asylum application in December 2024 that was granted by the Trump administration in April this year.

NBC News has meanwhile reported that he served in the Afghan army for 10 years, served alongside U.S. Special Forces and was stationed in Kandahar for part of that time.

The shooter appears to have acted alone, officials have said, and the FBI’s joint terrorism task force is currently investigating what drove him to open fire in what officials called an “ambush” attack on Thanksgiving eve.

Here’s Rachel Dobkin and Alex Croft with everything we know about Wednesday’s events.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey initially announced on X yesterday that the two Guardsmen shot in D.C. had died of their injuries, before subsequently issuing a follow-up post saying he had received “conflicting reports” about their wellbeing.

This is the last we heard from him, speaking to Charlie Hurt on Fox News.

Here’s some more official reaction to Wednesday’s attack from Kristi Noem, FBI Director Kash Patel, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and others.

This is the announcement posted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services overnight declaring that it is halting the processing of all asylum requests from Afghan nationals “indefinitely” and “effective immediately” in response to yesterday’s atrocity.

Alex Croft has this report.

The president was understandably upset last night but veered off into an Islamophobic attack on Somali Muslims in Minnesota, accusing the community of “ripping off our country and ripping apart that once great state,” which is neither true nor relevant to Wednesday’s incident in Washington.

While Trump and Vice President JD Vance have been quick to blame Biden for allowing suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal to come to America under Operation Allies Welcome following the U.S military’s withdrawal from his homeland, his asylum application was actually approved by the Trump administration in April this year, according to CNN.

That important detail is reportedly going unmentioned on Fox News, according to this avid viewer of the conservative cable news channel.