He raised a firearm and opened fire on two soldiers standing less than a mile from the residence.
A pocos metros de la residencia del poder más vigilada del mundo, dos soldados de la Guardia Nacional cayeron heridos de gravedad en un ataque que, en cuestión de horas, transformó una tragedia personal en combustible político. El presunto autor, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, afgano de 29 años que llegó a Estados Unidos en 2021 como parte de un programa de reasentamiento para quienes colaboraron con las fuerzas americanas, encarna la paradoja de una deuda contraída en la guerra que el país no sabe cómo saldar en tiempos de paz. El incidente, ocurrido en vísperas de Acción de Gracias, no solo reabrió heridas sobre la retirada de Afganistán, sino que aceleró decisiones de gobierno que ya estaban en marcha, recordándonos que los grandes debates sobre seguridad e identidad nacional rara vez esperan el momento oportuno.
- Dos soldados de la Guardia Nacional fueron tiroteados en plena calle a menos de un kilómetro de la Casa Blanca, en un ataque que las autoridades describieron como deliberado y selectivo.
- La confusión inicial fue mayúscula: el gobernador de Virginia anunció que ambos habían muerto, el aeropuerto Reagan detuvo el tráfico aéreo y la Casa Blanca entró en cierre de seguridad.
- El FBI corrigió la información horas después, confirmando que los dos soldados seguían con vida aunque en estado crítico, pero el daño político ya estaba hecho.
- Trump, desde Mar-a-Lago, calificó el ataque de terrorismo, culpó a Biden y el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional suspendió de inmediato todas las solicitudes de inmigración afgana.
- La administración ordenó el despliegue de 500 soldados adicionales en Washington, mientras los tribunales federales en varias ciudades ya habían declarado ilegales despliegues similares de la Guardia Nacional.
Poco después de las dos de la tarde de un miércoles, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, ciudadano afgano de 29 años, se acercó a dos soldados de la Guardia Nacional que patrullaban una zona de alta visibilidad a menos de un kilómetro de la Casa Blanca y abrió fuego. Dos disparos bastaron para dejar a ambos en estado crítico. Lakanwal fue reducido por otros miembros de la Guardia, resultó herido y fue detenido.
Lakanwal había llegado a Estados Unidos en septiembre de 2021 a través de la Operación Aliados Bienvenidos, el programa del gobierno de Biden para reubicar a afganos que colaboraron con las fuerzas americanas tras la caída de Kabul. Había trabajado con el ejército estadounidense en Kandahar y con una milicia asociada a la CIA. Su permiso de residencia de dos años había expirado, dejándolo en situación irregular.
La confusión inicial fue considerable. El gobernador de Virginia anunció que ambos soldados habían muerto; el FBI lo desmintió horas después, confirmando que seguían vivos aunque graves. El aeropuerto Reagan suspendió operaciones durante veinte minutos para un helicóptero de evacuación médica. La Casa Blanca fue bloqueada y los civiles cercanos fueron confinados en edificios próximos.
Desde su residencia en Florida, el presidente Trump calificó el ataque de terrorismo, llamó al sospechoso con el lenguaje que su administración reserva para inmigrantes acusados de delitos y responsabilizó directamente a su predecesor. En pocas horas, el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional suspendió todas las solicitudes de inmigración afgana y el secretario de Defensa recibió la orden de enviar 500 soldados adicionales a la capital.
El incidente llegó en el peor momento posible para un debate ya encendido. Desde agosto, Trump había desplegado unidades de la Guardia Nacional en varias ciudades de mayoría demócrata —Washington, Los Ángeles, Chicago, Memphis, Portland— con el argumento de combatir la criminalidad. Los tribunales federales habían bloqueado o limitado esos despliegues en varias jurisdicciones. El tiroteo cerca de la Casa Blanca le proporcionó a la administración un argumento inmediato para acelerar precisamente las políticas que los jueces estaban frenando.
Just after two in the afternoon on a Wednesday, a man walked around a corner near the White House, raised a firearm, and opened fire on two National Guard soldiers standing less than a mile from the residence. The shooting lasted only moments—witnesses heard two shots—but it left both soldiers critically wounded and set off a cascade of political recrimination that would reach the highest levels of government within hours.
The suspect was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan citizen who had arrived in the United States in September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden administration's program to resettle Afghan nationals following the Taliban's takeover of Kabul. Lakanwal had worked with American forces in Kandahar and had collaborated with the CIA as part of an associated militia. He had been granted a two-year permit to remain in the country, but that authorization had since expired, leaving him in irregular status. After the shooting, he was subdued by National Guard members, hospitalized with injuries sustained during the confrontation, and taken into custody.
According to police accounts, Lakanwal approached the two soldiers, who were conducting high-visibility patrols in the area, and fired at the first from close range. He then turned his weapon on the second soldier, who attempted to take cover behind a bus shelter. The Metropolitan Police Department's executive assistant chief described the attack as intentional and selective. Emergency responders moved quickly; the White House was locked down, and civilians were directed into nearby buildings. Air traffic at Ronald Reagan National Airport was halted for roughly twenty minutes to accommodate a medical evacuation helicopter.
Initially, Virginia's governor reported that both soldiers had been killed. The FBI corrected this within hours, confirming that while both remained in critical condition, they were alive and hospitalized in separate facilities. The distinction mattered enormously in what followed. President Trump, who was at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday, characterized the shooting as an act of terrorism and blamed his predecessor for allowing Lakanwal to enter the country. He referred to the suspect as an animal—language his administration routinely applied to undocumented immigrants accused of crimes. Within hours, the Department of Homeland Security announced a suspension of all Afghan immigration applications.
The incident intensified an already fraught debate over Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to American cities. Since mid-August, Guard units from multiple states had been stationed in Washington at the president's direction, ostensibly to combat violent crime, address homelessness, and bolster security. The strategy had expanded to Los Angeles, Memphis, Chicago, and Portland, predominantly in cities with Democratic leadership, which Trump accused of being soft on crime. The deployments had provoked fierce legal and political pushback. Federal judges in Los Angeles declared the Guard deployment illegal and barred soldiers from performing direct police functions. A federal judge in Portland blocked the deployment entirely. In Chicago, another judge issued a temporary restraining order. Even in Washington, a federal judge had ordered the deployment halted pending appeal.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, appearing on Fox News, argued that Lakanwal and many others like him should never have been admitted to the United States. He acknowledged that the Biden administration had justified bringing Lakanwal in because of his prior work with the American government, but contended that such work had ended shortly after the chaotic evacuation from Afghanistan. Ratcliffe framed the shooting as evidence of catastrophic failure by the previous administration. Trump's Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, was ordered to deploy an additional 500 Guard troops to the capital. The administration filed an emergency motion to keep existing Guard units in Washington indefinitely.
The shooting had arrived at a moment of maximum tension over both immigration and the militarization of domestic space. It provided Trump with immediate justification for policies he had already begun implementing—tighter restrictions on Afghan immigration, expanded Guard deployments in Democratic-led cities, and a hardened rhetorical stance against immigrants accused of crimes. What remained unclear was whether the courts would allow those deployments to continue, or whether the incident would accelerate the legal challenges already underway.
Citações Notáveis
The animal that shot the two National Guard members will pay a very high price— President Trump, via Truth Social
That person and many others never should have been allowed to come to the United States— CIA Director John Ratcliffe, on Fox News
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does it matter that Lakanwal had worked with the CIA?
Because it complicates the simple narrative. He wasn't a random arrival. He had been vetted, brought in because he'd helped American forces. The administration that admitted him could point to that. But it also means the vetting process—whatever it was—failed to prevent this.
Did anyone defend the decision to admit him?
Not prominently, not after the shooting. The CIA director said he shouldn't have been let in. The focus shifted entirely to the failure of the previous administration, not the logic that had seemed sound in 2021.
What about the soldiers? Are they going to survive?
The reporting says they're in critical condition. That's all we know. It's the kind of detail that matters enormously to their families and to the investigation, but it's also the kind of detail that gets lost in the political argument that erupts immediately after.
The National Guard deployment was already controversial. Did this shooting change anything?
It gave the administration a concrete incident to point to—proof, in their view, that the deployments were necessary. But the courts had already started blocking them. The shooting didn't resolve that legal question. It just made the political argument louder.
Why suspend all Afghan immigration applications? Wouldn't that be overreacting to one person's actions?
Politically, it's not an overreaction if you're trying to show strength and resolve. Legally and morally, it's collective punishment. Four million Afghans didn't shoot anyone. But in the hours after an attack, that distinction often gets flattened.