National Guard shooting suspect was ‘radicalised in US’, Noem says

US authorities believe the Afghan immigrant accused of ambushing National Guard members in Washington DC was not radicalised until after he came to the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Sunday.

Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press and ABC’s This Week, Noem said authorities think alleged shooter Rahmanullah Lakanwal was already living in Washington state when he became radicalised. Investigators were seeking more information from family members and others, Noem said.

Authorities identified Lakanwal, 29, as the suspect in a Wednesday shooting that took place just blocks away from the White House and which killed one National Guard member and critically wounded another.

After the shooting, US President Donald Trump’s administration pointed to a lack of vetting of Afghans and other foreign nationals during the term of former president Joe Biden, although Lakanwal was granted asylum under Trump.

Trump told reporters on Sunday his administration could pause asylum admissions into the United States for an extended period. “No time limit, but it could be a long time,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “We have enough problems. We don’t want those people.”

Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 as part of the Biden administration’s mass evacuation of Afghans who aided US forces during the two-decade war in Afghanistan as the Taliban took power. He was granted asylum in April by Trump’s administration, a government file reviewed by Reuters showed.