The accused Afghan man Two National Guard members were killed The blocs of members of the White House last week had been disintegrating for years, unable to hold down a job and juggling long, quiet periods of seclusion and making surprise, weeks-long cross-country trips. His behavior deteriorated so severely that a community advocate reached out to a refugee organization for help, fearing he was becoming suicidal.
Emails obtained by The Associated Press reveal growing warnings about the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakkanwal, an asylum seeker whose erratic behavior raised alarms long before the attack that rocked the nation’s capital on Thanksgiving Eve. The previously unreported concerns provide the clearest picture yet of how he is struggling in his new life in the United States.
However, when a community member who works with Afghan families in Washington state saw on the news that Lakanwal had been named as a suspect in the National Guard shooting, they said they were stunned, unable to reconcile the violence with the memory of seeing Lakanwal playing with his young sons. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to share undisclosed details as he cooperates with the FBI in its investigation.
West Virginia National Guard specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was seriously injured in what officials described as an ambush attack Wednesday afternoonBeckstrom died from her injuries the next day. Investigators are still working to determine the motive behind the attack.
Lakanwal, 29, was charged with first-degree murder.
In Afghanistan, Lakhanwal served in a special Afghan army unit known as Unit Zero. The units were supported by the CIA. He entered the United States in 2021 through Operation Allied Welcome, A program that led to the evacuation and resettlement of tens of thousands of Afghans after the US withdrawal from the country, many of whom worked alongside US forces and diplomats.
He settled with his wife and five children, all under the age of 12, in Bellingham, Washington, but struggled, according to a community member, who shared emails sent to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nonprofit group that provides services to refugees.
“Rahmanullah has been no longer performing his job as a person, father, and provider since March of last year, 03/2023,” the person wrote in an email in January 2024. “He resigned from his job that month, and his behavior changed dramatically.”
The emails described a man who was struggling to integrate, unable to hold down a steady job or commit to English courses, while alternating between “dark periods of isolation and reckless travel.” Sometimes, he would spend weeks in his “dark room, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife or his older children.” Sometime in 2023, the family faced eviction after months of not paying rent.
A community member said in an interview that they had become concerned that Lakanwal was so depressed that he might end up harming himself, but they saw no indication that he would commit acts of violence against another person.
One email stated that Lakhanwal’s family members often resorted to sending his young sons to his room to bring him the phone or messages because he would not answer anyone else. Several times, when his wife left him with the children for a week to travel to visit relatives, the children would not be bathed, their clothes would not be changed, and they would not eat well. Their school raised concerns about the situation.
But after that, there were “temporary” weeks as Lakanwal tried to make adjustments and “do the right things,” the email said, and re-engage with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services as stipulated in his terms of entry into the United States.
“But this quickly progressed into bouts of madness for a week or two at a time, where he would get into the family car and drive nonstop,” the email explained. Once, he went to Chicago, and another time to Arizona.
Lacanwale drove cross-country from Bellingham, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Seattle, to the nation’s capital to carry out his attack, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., said last week.
In response to the two emails, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, or USCRI, visited Bellingham a few weeks later in March 2024 and attempted to contact Lakhanwal and his family, according to a community member, who, after receiving no updates, was left with the impression that he had refused to help them.
A request for comment and clarification from USCRI was not immediately responded to.