National Guard shooting suspect spent weeks isolated in bedroom, case worker’s email says

The man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. last week spent weeks in solitary confinement in a darkened room and suffered “manic episodes” — according to notes written in 2024 by a case worker who helped relocate the suspect’s family after fleeing Afghanistan.

Rahmanullah Luckenwal is accused of an “ambush” that killed 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and seriously injured 24-year-old Andrew Wolf.

The 29-year-old entered the United States in 2021 as part of a program for Afghans who served with U.S. forces in Afghanistan, officials said.

According to emails obtained last year by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, Mr Lockenwall was struggling with his mental health.

In an interview with NBC on Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem claimed that Mr. Luckenwall had been “radicalized since he came to this country” and that officials believed it was “from his ties to his home community and state.”

Mr Luckenwall, an Afghan national, entered the US as part of the Biden-era Operation Allied Welcome Program.

This was the period following the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. After the Taliban took back control of the country, there were fears of reprisals against people like Mr Luckenwall who collaborated with the US.

He applied for asylum in 2024, and his application was approved earlier this year, an official told CBS.

He lived with his wife and five children in Bellingham, Washington – the state on the other side of the country from where last week’s attack took place.

The motive is still unknown, but a picture of Mr Lockenwall’s life in the US has begun to emerge through emails sent to the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a non-profit group, last year.

A case worker helping Family Access Services in the US sent an email on 11 January 2024, expressing concern that Mr Luckenwall had been out of work for a year and his family faced eviction.

“World Relief volunteers are trying to patch things up for that family — but I think the father has mental health issues that aren’t being addressed, and he won’t talk to anyone,” reads a section of the email obtained by CBS. World Relief is a group that helped with the relocation of Afghan citizens.

In a separate email sent on 31 January 2024, the case worker said Mr Luckenwall “spends most of his time in his dark bedroom for weeks, not talking to anyone, not even his wife and grown children”.

The case worker, who was not a mental health professional, also said Mr Luckenwall had “manic episodes for a week or two where he would go into the family car”. They also said that he would have periods in which he would try to “adjust”.

Last week, a childhood friend told The New York Times that Mr Luckenwall had experienced mental health problems after serving with his unit in Afghanistan.

Mr Luckenwal was a member of “Unit Zero” – an Afghan intelligence and paramilitary force that worked with the CIA – a former member of the Afghan Defense and Security Forces told CBS.

CIA director John Ratcliffe also confirmed that Lockenwall worked with the US intelligence agency.

Days after the attack in Washington DC, President Donald Trump vowed to “permanently halt immigration” from all “Third World countries”.

The president’s administration has halted all asylum decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted to the maximum extent possible,” said US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Adlow.

On Sunday, Trump told reporters that he expected the situation to last “for a long time.”

Mr. Luckenwall, who was shot during the incident and hospitalized, has been charged with murder, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said.