Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., previously served in an elite Afghan counterterrorism unit, AfghanEvac says. AfghanEvac is a nonprofit run by U.S. veterans and others who served in Afghanistan and identified Lakanwal as a member of the unit known as NDS-03.
According to AfghanEvac, NDS-03 operated at the direction of the CIA with direct U.S. intelligence and military support and fought the Taliban on behalf of the U.S. government. CIA Director John Ratcliffe has said the shooter, who came to the United States from Afghanistan in 2021, was admitted into the U.S. “due to his prior work with the U.S. Government, including CIA.”
The group says Lakanwal was likely vetted several times during his evacuation and resettlement. He was evacuated by the U.S. military in August 2021 after the fall of Kabul and entered the country under humanitarian parole, the temporary authority used to bring tens of thousands of Afghans — including special immigrant visa applicants and others who worked with U.S. forces — to safety. He applied for asylum during the Biden administration and was reportedly granted asylum in April 2025.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Lakanwal’s ties to U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan will be a central focus of the probe. “This subject had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces,” Patel said, noting investigators are reviewing that background and any known associates overseas or in the United States. Patel also asserted, without presenting evidence in the comments cited, that Lakanwal was allowed into the U.S. by the Biden administration without proper vetting and accused officials of failing to vet “this individual and countless others.”
Lakanwal also had an active special immigrant visa (SIV) application — the program for Afghans who worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan. He had received chief of mission approval, a required SIV step, but had not yet been granted lawful permanent residence (a green card). AfghanEvac stated that both chief of mission approval and asylum applications would have involved review and vetting by U.S. government agencies, including the CIA.
In an interview with NPR, AfghanEvac founder and Navy veteran Shawn VanDiver said it is too early to determine whether additional scrutiny was warranted. “We don’t know yet. If there was a vetting failure, we’ve got to fix it, but we can’t paint with a broad brush this entire community, right? The vast majority of Afghans who have come here are just good upstanding citizens,” he said.
AfghanEvac described the asylum vetting process as involving identity and background checks, biometric vetting, in-person interviews and individualized assessments of risk and eligibility under U.S. law. The group noted that those granted asylum can apply for a green card after one year and emphasized that this violent act should not be taken as representative of the Afghan community, which “continues to contribute across the United States and undergoes some of the most extensive vetting of any immigrant population.”