![90 Day Fiance: Jovi Drops the D-word at Inform-All – Fortunately Ever After Recap [S09E22]](https://i3.wp.com/eadn-wc01-4272485.nxedge.io/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/90-day-fiance-jovi-dufren-8912.jpg?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1 "90 Day Fiance: Jovi Drops the D-word at Inform-All – Fortunately Ever After Recap [S09E22]")
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the 29-year-old Afghan nationwide accused of taking pictures two West Virginia Nationwide Guard members, killing one, in Washington, D.C., has been formally charged with homicide.
Lakanwal, of Bellingham, Washington, appeared earlier than a decide remotely on Tuesday from his hospital mattress, the place he’s recovering from gunshot wounds he suffered when one other Nationwide Guard member shot him in the course of the incident.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
U.S. Division of Justice
Lakanwal was sporting a hospital robe and was mendacity in a hospital mattress, lined in a blanket, in the course of the distant courtroom look.
By a Pashtu interpreter, Lakanwal was charged with one rely of homicide, two counts of assault with the intent to kill, and one rely of possession of a firearm throughout a criminal offense of violence.
Lakanwal pleaded not responsible to the fees by means of a court-appointed lawyer.
At one level in the course of the listening to, Lakanwal, talking in Pashtu, stated by means of the interpreter, “I can not open my eyes, I’ve ache in my ear.”
Nationwide Guard members Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe.
U.S. Division of Justice
“It is a stunning crime that occurred at about two within the afternoon, so the start of rush hour the day earlier than Thanksgiving,” Ariel Dean, an assistant U.S. lawyer, stated in the course of the listening to.
Lakanwal is charged with taking pictures Military Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and U.S. Air Drive Workers Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, members of the West Virginia Nationwide Guard, who had been “ambushed” whereas conducting “excessive visibility patrols” on Nov. 25 simply blocks from the White Home, authorities stated.
Beckstrom was killed and Wolfe was critically injured, authorities stated.
New particulars of the assault emerged on Tuesday when authorities unsealed a felony grievance in opposition to Lakanwal, a married father of 5 youngsters.
Lakanwal, in response to the grievance, shot Beckstrom from behind and was making an attempt to reload after he was shot and simply earlier than he was subdued. An post-mortem by the Washington, D.C., Medical Examiner’s Workplace decided that Beckstrom was shot as soon as at the back of the pinnacle, in response to the grievance.
Wolfe was additionally shot within the head in the course of the assault, in response to the grievance.
Witnesses informed investigators that as Beckstrom and Wolfe fell to the bottom after being shot, Lakanwal was heard shouting “Allahu Akbar,” an Arabic phrase which means “God is nice,” in response to the grievance.
Folks place flowers in a makeshift memorial arrange after two Nationwide Guard members had been shot, close to the White Home, in Washington, D.C., Nov. 28, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
Video recovered from the scene of the taking pictures allegedly exhibits Lakanwal opening fireplace on the Nationwide Guard members after coming round a nook “together with his palms raised in a firing stance,” in response to the grievance.
The Nationwide Guard member who shot Lakanwal reported that it appeared the suspect’s firearm, a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver, was empty and he was trying to reload, in response to the grievance. After Lakanwal was shot, a witness and uniformed Secret Service officers subdued him and introduced him into custody, the grievance stated.
D.C. Superior Court docket Decide Justice of the Peace Decide Renee Raymond dominated that Lakanwal be held with out bond till a minimum of Jan. 14.
‘It’s pretty clear that he [Lankanwal] got here throughout the nation 3,000 miles armed and with a selected goal in thoughts,” Raymond stated in the course of the listening to. “There’s video footage of him ready in broad daylight, and that upon seeing a contingent of legislation enforcement officers, together with the slain and injured Nationwide Guard individuals, he went of their course. He began taking pictures at them.”
A motive for the assault stays underneath investigation.
Sources beforehand informed ABC Information that the FBI is investigating the taking pictures as a possible act of worldwide terrorism, suggesting authorities try to find out if it might have been impressed by a world terrorist group. To date, nonetheless, authorities haven’t publicly launched any particular proof tying Lakanwal to a terrorist group, and no terrorism-related prices have been filed.
The suspect beforehand labored with the U.S. authorities as a member of a companion pressure in Kandahar, “which led to 2021 following the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” in response to CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“This particular person – and so many others – ought to have by no means been allowed to come back right here,” Ratcliffe stated.
In Afghanistan, the suspect was concerned with the Zero Unit, working carefully with the CIA and the Joint Particular Operations Command, in response to sources conversant in the investigation. The suspect was a trusted member of that workforce, which went after U.S. counterterrorism targets, in response to sources.
The investigation signifies Lakanwal was underneath monetary stress as a result of his work allow had expired, and that he was experiencing a doable psychological well being disaster, sources conversant in the investigation informed ABC Information.
Investigators are additionally wanting into whether or not the latest loss of life of an Afghan commander with whom Lakanwal labored and whom he revered might need negatively affected his psychological and emotional well being, a number of sources informed ABC Information.
