According to CBS News, emails show that Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the suspect in the D.C. National Guard shooting, felt withdrawn and non-functional for the last two years.
The Afghan national faces murder charges after Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died.
From the report:
According to emails dated January 2024 obtained by CBS News, the 29-year-old had been struggling to hold a job and had not been doing well mentally for more than a year.In an email sent on Jan. 11, 2024, to the nonprofit group U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, the concerned case worker said Lakanwal had not worked in a year and his family had been served an eviction notice for nonpayment of rent.”World Relief volunteers are trying to patch things for that family – but I think the father has mental health issues that are not addressed, and he won’t talk to anyone,” the email, sent the year before Lakanwal’s asylum claim was approved, read in part.—–In another email sent Jan. 31, 2024, the case worker said Lakanwal had “not been functional as a person, father and provider since March of last year, 03/2023.””He spends most of his time for weeks on end in his darkened bedroom, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife and older kids,” the email said.The email also describes “manic episodes for one or two weeks at a time where he will take off in the family car,” but also “interim” periods where he “tries to make amends.” The case worker, who is not a mental health professional, later said in the email that they believed Lakanwal is suffering “…PTSD from his work with the US military in Afghanistan.”
The advocate believed Lakanwal would harm himself, but “never saw signs suggesting he might become violent towards others.”
Lakanwal worked with the U.S., including the CIA, while in Afghanistan.
He came to the U.S. in 2021 during Biden’s awful Afghanistan withdrawal under “Operation Allies Welcome.”
Lakanwal, his wife, and five children lived in Washington state.
The suspect drove across the country to D.C. right before the shooting. We do not know yet when he arrived.
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