An Afghan accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington will be charged with murder after one of the victims died, a US official said on Friday, a day after President Donald Trump pledged to suspend immigration from “third world countries.” American media reported that the gunman, identified by the authorities as Rahmanullah Lakkanwal (29 years old), was a member of the “Zero Units” of the Afghan services, an anti-terrorism group supported by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
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“There will undoubtedly be many other charges, but we are raising the initial charges from assault to first-degree murder,” said the federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro, on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.” -It is a premeditated murder. There was an ambush with a gun on people who did not know what was coming.
On Thursday, US Attorney Pam Bondi promised to “seek the death penalty” for Lakkanwal, whom she described as a “monster.” On Thanksgiving Eve, Lakanwal fired a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver at a group of guards patrolling the White House grounds, according to Prosecutor Pirro.
The attack resulted in the injury of two people: Sarah Beckstrom, 20 years old, and Andrew Wolfe, 24 years old. They were sent to the United States capital as part of the federal government’s offensive against crime. Beckstrom, a member of the West Virginia National Guard, died Thursday from his injuries. Wolf continued to “fight for his life,” according to President Trump.
“We still have hope,” Perrault said of the injured soldier. -He is still in critical condition. We do everything we can to help your family.
The shooting has reignited three politically explosive issues: Trump’s controversial use of the military inside the country, immigration, and the legacy of the US war in Afghanistan. Late Thursday night, Trump promised in a post on the social media network Truth Social to “temporarily halt” immigration from “all third world countries” and threatened to revoke “millions” of permits granted during the previous administration of Democrat Joe Biden, in a new escalation of his anti-immigration stance.
When asked what specific nationalities would be affected, the Department of Homeland Security referred AFP to a list of 19 countries — including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran and Myanmar — that face restrictions on travel to the United States under Trump’s previous order issued in June.
Joseph Edlow, director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), on Thursday announced a “stringent and broad re-evaluation of all green cards” — residency permits — granted “to all aliens from all relevant countries.” The USCIS cited the same list of 19 states after being consulted by AFP.
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More than 1.6 million green card holders, roughly 12% of the total permanent resident population in the United States, were born in the mentioned countries, according to official data. Afghanistan, which has more than 116,000 green card holders, is affected by the complete suspension of immigration processing ordered by the Trump administration after the shooting.
According to the heads of the FBI, CIA and Department of Homeland Security, Lakanwal arrived in the United States without adequate supervision due to the Biden administration’s lax asylum policies in the wake of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Afghan Evac, a group that helped resettle Afghans in the United States after the military withdrawal, said citizens of the Asian country were subjected to some of the most comprehensive security checks of any immigrants.