White House shooting: US suspends immigration requests of Afghans

TOI analogous from Washington: In a brazen daylight ambush that has shaken Washington DC, 2 National Guard unit were changeable and critically wounded conscionable a fewer blocks from the White House connected Wednesday by an Afghan nationalist who served with the US subject and the CIA successful Afghanistan.

The suspect, identified arsenic 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was wounded successful a firefight with responding officers and remains successful custody arsenic national investigators probe what President Donald Trump has branded an "act of terror" conducted by an “animal.”The incident, unfolding amid heightened information tensions successful the post-election landscape, has ignited a fierce partisan blasted crippled implicit US migration policies, halted each processing for Afghan refugees and asylum seekers, and drawn crisp scrutiny to the humanitarian relation of American veterans successful facilitating the resettlement of allies who fought alongside them successful America's longest war.Hours aft the incident, the Trump medication said it had stopped processing migration applications from Afghanistan, pending further reappraisal of information and vetting protocols. “We indispensable instrumentality each indispensable measures to guarantee the removal of immoderate alien from immoderate country, who does not beryllium present oregon adhd payment to our country. If they can’t emotion our country, we don’t privation them,” President Trump said successful remarks aft the attack.

The shooting occurred astir 2 p.m. connected Pennsylvania Avenue NW, adjacent the Farragut West metro station, a bustling corridor lined with national buildings, lobbying offices, and tourer hotspots. Eyewitnesses described a chaotic scene: a antheral successful acheronian covering emerging from a parked sedan, firing a semi-automatic handgun astatine the 2 uniformed Guardsmen who were connected ft patrol arsenic portion of a Trump-ordered deployment to bolster DC security.

The victims, identified arsenic Staff Sgt. Elijah Ramirez, 32, and Sgt. Marcus Hale, 28, were struck aggregate times successful the torso and legs. They were rushed to George Washington University Hospital a fewer blocks away, wherever surgeons performed exigency procedures to stem bleeding. As of Thursday morning, some remained successful captious but unchangeable condition.Ramirez, a begetter of 3 and Iraq War veteran, and Hale, a caller enlistee with work successful Europe, were portion of a 500-member National Guard contingent deployed to the District successful September 2025 nether an enforcement bid aimed astatine curbing municipality unrest pursuing the November election.

Following the shooting, defence caput Pete Hegseth rushed an further 500-person Guard to the capital.The FBI, starring the probe with assistance from the section of homeland security, has classified the onslaught arsenic a "targeted assault" but has not publically confirmed a motive. It initially refrained from adjacent calling it a violent onslaught pending investigations, but by nightfall President Trump characterized it an “act of terror.”Preliminary ballistics bespeak Lakanwal utilized a 9mm Glock pistol purchased legally successful Virginia past month, and his sedan contained a manifesto-like papers railing against "American imperialism" and U.S. engagement successful Afghanistan, according to section quality outlets. As dawn broke implicit the cordoned-off transgression country connected Thanksgiving Thursday, yellowish constabulary portion fluttered successful the chill wind—a stark reminder of the messiness from America's tragic warfare successful Afghanistan played retired successful a sidewalk successful Washington DC.