Name: Suspect who shot National Guard soldiers in DC worked with CIA in Afghanistan | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-11-30T09:22:32.000Z
Duration: 4 min 29 s
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Lets turn to Washington because the FBI has confirmed it's investigating the shooting of two National Guard soldiers near the White House as an act of terror.

20 year old Sarah Beckstrom and 24 year old Andrew Wolf are in a critical condition after undergoing surgery.

Basic passive voice

The alleged gunman is from Afghanistan and is believed to have entered the US in 2021.

Well, the FBI director has been speaking in the last half an hour and gave this update.

There is confirmation now that the subject had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces.

We are fully investigating that aspect of his background as well to include any known associates that are either overseas or here in the United States of America.

That is what a broad based international terrorism investigation looks like.

We will provide continuous details to the American public while at the same time not jeopardizing the ongoing prosecution to ultimately hold this perpetrator accountable in our courts of law.

Let's speak to our North America correspondent Nomi Iqbal who is listening to that and tell us a little more about some of the detail that emerged from that news conference.

Well, as you mentioned there, we know the details of the two National Guard troops that were ambushed and that is how the Department of Homeland Security is describing it happened just behind me, Matthew, just near the bus stop near Farragut West Metro station.

I often exit at this station to go to work.

It's about two blocks north of the White House so just a few minutes walk.

They are 20 year old Sarah Backstrom and 24 year old Andrew Wolf from West Virginia.

It is Thanksgiving Day, the most important arguably national holiday for families.

We understand the families are with them in hospital.

We've got more details on the man that is said to have shot them, 29 year old Ramana Lackawal.

Just to look at more of the details that we got from the press conference, he came from Washington State that is on the other side of the US on the West Coast.

They say that he drove here to carry out this attack.

They've executed many search warrants this morning on his house, spoken to everybody in the house about what his motivations were.

He was shot four times by by police yesterday.

But in the wake of this horrific shooting, as you can imagine this has become a hugely political story where the focus is on how he got here into the country.

He was welcome, welcomed under a program introduced by the Biden administration in the wake of that chaotic withdrawal of US Troops in Afghanistan.

And this program was to help those Afghans that worked alongside US Troops and to save them from any retribution by the Taliban.

And so the Trump administration has focused on that because this program was controversial even at the time where many Republicans were worried about the vetting process.

And now there's an element of, well, we told you so coming from those conservatives.

But then on the other side, you've got prominent liberals saying, well, the National Guard troops shouldn't have been here.

They're really friendly, very approachable.

I've stopped and had conversations with them, spoke to some yesterday who said they were very shaken up by what had happened, but

President Trump says they're here to tackle crime.

Liberal and Democrats are saying there is no crime in D.C.

that warrants the deployment of National Guard troops.

That crime, the statistics show, has been going down since before they came in August.

So what you have in the wake of this horrific shooting is these divisive politics.

But at the heart of it, ultimately what you have are two very young people in a critical state in hospital on Thanksgiving Day.

So we wait to get updates on them, but also on the suspects as well.

And it's worth mentioning that the attorney, the U.S.

attorney, Jeanine Pirro, said that if one of those National Guard troops passes, then the suspect is looking at as a charge of murder one.

And Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said yesterday they would be seeking the death penalty normally.

Iqbal, live for in Washington, thanks very much.