Accused DC National Guard shooter Rahmanullah Lakanwal could face the death penalty after he was hit with federal first-degree murder charges on Tuesday.
Prosecutors also alleged that the Afghan refugee tried to buy even more guns before his attack on American troops on Nov. 26.
The criminal complaint, filed in DC US District Court, brought the gun-related, assault and murder counts against the 29-year-old father of five for the shooting of West Virginia National Guard soldiers Sarah Beckstrom, who later died, and Andrew Wolfe, who is still recovering from his wounds.
Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said the case is transferred from Superior Court to the District Court in an escalation of possible consequences for the alleged shooter.
The action “ensures that we can undertake the serious, deliberate, and weighty analysis required to determine if the death penalty is appropriate here,” Pirro said. “Sarah Beckstrom was just 20 years old when she was killed and her parents are now forced to endure the holiday season without their daughter. Andrew Wolfe, by the grace of God, survived but has a long road ahead in his recovery.”
The FBI revealed that Lakanwal purchased a stolen .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson revolver for the shooting about two weeks before he drove across the country from his home in Bellingham, Wash.
On Oct. 15, he also contacted an individual to “find” even more firearms for him — including an AR-15 rifle and a stockless, AK-47-style “Draco” pistol — but only ended up being able to get his hands on a revolver, the affidavit alleged.
It had previously been reported stolen from a home in Washington state.
Lakanwal claimed he needed a gun “for protection in his vehicle as a Lyft and Uber driver,” but the person he discussed getting the weapons from noted he remarked of the revolver: “only five rounds?”
On Nov. 15, he bought a box of .357 Magnum rounds from Big 5 Sporting Goods in Bellingham, according to CCTV footage and a purchase receipt.
Lakanwal is accused of shooting Wolfe, a 24-year-old Air Force staff sergeant who has since made a “miraculous” recovery at a nearby hospital, and Beckstrom, a 20-year-old Army specialist who died from the gunshot wound on Thanksgiving Day. --->READ MORE HERE
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The Afghan national accused in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., was hit with new federal charges that open the door for the death penalty.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announced that Rahmanullah Lakanwal was charged with transporting a firearm in interstate commerce with the intent to commit an offense punishable by imprisonment for more than one year and with transporting a stolen firearm in interstate commerce. Sarah Beckstrom was killed in the Nov. 26 attack, while Andrew Wolfe was left seriously injured.
"The transfer of this case from Superior Court to District Court ensures that we can undertake the serious, deliberate and weighty analysis required to determine if the death penalty is appropriate here," U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement.
"Sarah Beckstrom was just 20 years old when she was killed, and her parents are now forced to endure the holiday season without their daughter," she added. "Andrew Wolfe, by the grace of God, survived but has a long road ahead in his recovery."
The .357 Smith & Wesson revolver that suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly used in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., Nov. 26, 2025, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. (Nathan Howard/Reuters/U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia)
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Lakanwal also "remains charged with first-degree murder while armed, assault with intent to kill while armed and two counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, in violation of the D.C. Code."
In an affidavit released this week, an FBI special agent wrote that the weapon Lakanwal allegedly used in the shooting was a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver that was stolen from a home in in Seattle in May 2023. --->READ MORE HERE
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