National Guard shooter was radicalized in U.S., Kristi Noem says

U.S. authorities believe the man suspected of fatally shooting a National Guard member and seriously wounding another in Washington, D.C., was radicalized while in the U.S., Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about the suspect’s motive, Noem said investigators are still collecting information and talking to his contacts.

“But I will say we believe he was radicalized since he’s been here in this country,” she said. “We do believe it was through connections in his home community and state, and we’re going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members. So far we’ve had some participation.”

Federal authorities have identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national who worked with U.S. forces and the CIA in Afghanistan before arriving in the U.S. in 2021. He was subdued and taken into custody shortly after the shooting on a street a few blocks from the White House on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials blamed the Biden administration for letting Lakanwal into the U.S. and seized on the attack to push for deeper immigration curbs, including halting reviews of Afghan immigration proceedings and ordering a review of those already in the U.S. That raises the prospect that settlement rights for Afghan allies of U.S. forces may be curtailed.

The investigation has included searches in Washington state, where Lakanwal lived with his wife and children, and California. Law enforcement officials allege he drove across the country to the capital to carry out the attack.

Authorities are treating the shooting as a terror case, though they haven’t publicly described a motive. Noem didn’t provide details about how the suspect may have been radicalized.

Two West Virginia National Guard members were shot in the attack. U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died Thursday of her injuries. U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, was wounded and remains hospitalized.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Friday the suspected gunman would face charges including first-degree murder. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has indicated that authorities will seek the death penalty.

While the Trump administration has cast blame on President Joe Biden’s administration and its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Lakanwal was granted asylum after Trump returned to White House in January, according to AfghanEvac, a nonprofit group.

Noem sought to shift the onus to Biden, saying information underlying his asylum application would have been gathered in a vetting process in place under the Biden administration, which she portrayed as incomplete.

“Much of the information that was gathered and provided by the Biden administration wasn’t thorough and wasn’t done,” she said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Noem: The responsibility lies with the Biden Admin

Karl: Are you saying you did no vetting before granting him asylum? pic.twitter.com/a2oyFA4AZ8

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 30, 2025

The Trump administration’s threatened crackdown raises questions about the future of asylum seekers already in the country and those who might seek refuge in the U.S. in the future.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow said in a social media post last week that the U.S. was halting all asylum decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

Noem suggested the process would resume once a backlog of 1.5 million pending asylum cases has been cleared.

“It’ll start when we know that we have dealt with the backlog that we have,” she said on “Meet the Press.” “We are going to go through every single person that has a pending asylum claim, has an asylum claim here in this country.”

Welker: What vetting did the Trump administration do before giving this suspect asylum?

Noem: That’s the Biden administration’s responsibility.

Welker: Asylum was approved in April of this year on the Trump administration’s watch. So just to be very clear, was there a vetting… pic.twitter.com/GRCO3ygIVm

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 30, 2025

Trump has stepped up his anti-immigration rhetoric after the Washington shooting. He said on Nov. 27 he would permanently pause migration from “all Third World Countries,” “terminate” what he called “illegal admissions” under Biden and end federal benefits for non-citizens.

He also said he would deport foreign nationals deemed a security risk and “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility.”