Homeland Security Secretary Kristin Noem said, “we’re going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members, who talked to them.”
By Catholics for Catholics
Spending weeks alone in a gloomy room, depressed and shunning his own family, the man from Afghanistan who allegedly killed a National Guard member and injured another may have been “radicalized” after he arrived into the United States, according to Homeland’s Security’s Secretary.
According to the Daily Wire, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, kept “connections” to contacts in his home country who may have helped radicalize him. He was permitted to come to the United States under Operation Allies Welcome, the catastrophic Biden administration’s withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
“I will say we believe he was radicalized since he’s been here in this country,” Noem said. “We do believe it was through connections in his home community and state, and we’re going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members, who talked to them.”
Noem said Lakanwal is accused of shooting National Guardsmen Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe on the day before Thanksgiving, slaying Beckstrom and gravely wounding Wolfe. Some return fire managed to injure the suspected shooter, but he is expected to survive and stand trial. Lakanwal was charged with first-degree murder, with more charges expected to be handed down as the investigation continues. President Donald Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack,” saying that the suspect “went nuts.”
“It happens too often with these people,” Trump added.
🚨 NEW: Alleged National Guard shooter Rahmanullah Lakanwal worked with the CIA while serving as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, before being brought to the United States in 2021 by the Biden administration pic.twitter.com/tVpMYER6Wu
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) November 27, 2025
According to The Daily Wire, Lakanwal allegedly showed perturbing conduct long before he attacked National Guard troops in D.C. The supposed shooter established himself with his wife and children in Bellingham, Washington, where he toiled to keep a job and was not able to assimilate into U.S. culture. In one email from January 2024, an Afghan community advocate wrote that Lakanwal “has not been functional as a person, father and provider since March of last year, 03/2023. He quit his job that month, and his behavior has changed greatly.” The advocate added that Lakanwal would devote weeks in a “darkened room, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife or older kids.”
After receiving the emails from the community advocate, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants followed-up on Lakanwal, but it seems that Lakanwal was not contacted or refused assistance.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Lakanwal drove cross country from Bellingham to Washington, D.C., where he allegedly carried out the attack.
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