National Guard shooting suspect hospitalized, judge says

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan man awaiting trial over the shooting of two National Guard members near the White House, has been hospitalized after refusing food and sometimes water, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

District Judge Amit Mehta said at an emergency court hearing that Lakanwal had been admitted to a Washington hospital this week. The Post quoted Mehta as saying Lakanwal's health had deteriorated “quite substantially” and that he was in “dire circumstances.”

Lakanwal pleaded not guilty in December to murder and firearms charges over the November attack, which killed one National Guard member and seriously wounded another.

US officials have said Lakanwal entered the United States through a resettlement program after the 2021 US military withdrawal from Afghanistan and had been part of a CIA-backed partner force fighting the Taliban.

President Donald Trump's administration suspended visas for all Afghan nationals after the attack and froze decisions in all asylum cases.