00:00Yesterday on Thanksgiving Eve at approximately 2.15, near 17th and I Streets in the northwest section of the district, near the Farragut West Metro Station, two uniformed guardsmen were ambushed in a brazen and targeted attack.
00:19A lone gunman opened fire without provocation, ambush style, armed with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver. One guardsman is struck, goes down, and then the shooter leans over and strikes the guardsman again. Another guardsman is struck several times.
00:42Fellow guardsmen who were there responded immediately, engaging the suspect, neutralizing the threat, and subduing him at the scene. He was transported to a local hospital, where he remains, as we speak, under heavy guard.
00:59Thanks to the swift and coordinated response of the National Guard and the Metropolitan Police Department, no additional victims were harmed, and the scene was secured within minutes.
01:12The suspect, he has been identified as Ramanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan who entered the United States under Biden's Operation Allies Welcome, a program following the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
01:32He resided in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and, we believe, five children.
01:41And we're working very closely with our federal partners, especially DHS and the FBI, to review his immigration history and the vetting process itself.
01:52What we know about him is that he drove his vehicle across country from the state of Washington with the intended target of coming to our nation's capital.
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