The prosecutor for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, has charged this Thursday the suspect of shooting in the vicinity of the White House against two members of the US National Guard, who still remain in critical condition, with three counts of assault with intent to kill and one for illegal possession of weapons.
“The two national guardsmen are Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, uniformed members of the West Virginia National Guard and were in Washington DC to ensure the security of the city,” he detailed in a press conference.
If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison after he shot the two National Guard members in broad daylight just one day before Thanksgiving in what authorities have already described as a “targeted attack.”
The suspect, identified as Ramanullah Lajanwal, is a 29-year-old Afghan citizen who resided in Bellingham, located in Washington state, with his wife and five children. He entered the United States thanks to repatriation flights organized by then-former President Joe Biden during the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) confirmed this Thursday that the suspect in the shooting – who moved from his home in Washington to the capital – worked with a Kandahar military unit backed by the CIA during the war in Afghanistan.
“Our citizens and military deserve much better than to endure the consequences of the Biden Administration’s catastrophic failures,” said CIA Director John Ratcliffe in a statement reported by NBC News.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, called the attack an “act of evil, an act of hate and an act of terrorism” the day before. “It has been a crime against our entire nation,” he said in a message posted on the Truth Social social network.
National Guard troops from several states have been in Washington for months as part of the anti-crime offensive promoted by the Trump Administration in the capital, and which has expanded to other cities across the country.
In fact, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, announced the day before during his visit to the Dominican Republic that the United States will deploy 500 additional soldiers following the attack against two members of the National Guard.