Death of Afghan commander, financial stress surface in National Guard shooting investigation: Sources
A view of the scene after two members of the US National Guard were shot and ‘critically wounded’ near the White House in Washington DC, United States on November 26, 2025. A suspect was in custody. (Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — As investigators continue to delve into what may have motivated the suspect in the deadly National Guardsmen shooting last week, a portrait of a life of increasing financial stress and a potential mental health crisis has emerged, sources familiar told ABC News.
Additionally, multiple sources said that investigators are looking into the impact of the recent death of an Afghan commander, who allegedly worked with the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
The death of the commander — whom Lakanwal is said to have revered — had deeply saddened the suspect, sources said.
This may have compounded on Lakanwal’s financial burdens, including not being employed, having an expired work permit and allegedly struggling to pay rent and feed his children, sources said.
Officials said the suspect has a wife and five children. He drove from his residence in Washington state to the nation’s capital prior to the shooting and targeted the Guardsmen, officials said.
A senior law enforcement source told ABC News on Sunday that investigators are looking at everything and are closely examining the role of an apparently deteriorating situation at home.
The FBI, Homeland Security and intelligence officials are also investigating the possibility that the attack was directed by or inspired by international terrorists. But thus far, authorities have not publicly released any specific evidence tying Lakanwal to a terrorist organization and no terror charges have been filed.
The investigation into the deadly shooting is still in its early phases.
Two members of the National Guard were shot and seriously wounded just blocks from the White House in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 26, with one guard dying as a result of her sustained injuries the next day.
President Donald Trump called the shooting “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror,” adding, “It was a crime against our entire nation.”
Trump, citing information from the Department of Homeland Security, said the suspect entered the U.S. from Afghanistan in September 2021, and criticized the prior administration of President Joe Biden.
The suspect previously worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, “which ended in 2021 following the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” according to CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
He applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted asylum in April, under the Trump administration, according to the sources.
In Afghanistan, the suspect was involved with the Zero Unit, working closely with the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The suspect was a trusted member of that team, which went after U.S. counterterrorism targets, according to sources.
The FBI over the weekend continued to interview family and associates of the suspect and tried to exploit documents and other material obtained through searches of mobile devices, his social media footprint and properties tied to him.
Lakanwal remains hospitalized under heavy guard, sources told ABC News on Sunday.
(NEW YORK) — The fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk has put Utah Valley University (UVU) under scrutiny as security experts said the location of the stage for the outdoor event where the conservative commentator was targeted was particularly vulnerable, and questioned why no metal detectors were in place and bags seemingly were not checked.
More than 3,000 people were on hand Wednesday as the 31-year-old Kirk, CEO and co-founder of the conservative grassroots organization Turning Point USA, spoke in an open-air courtyard on the Orem, Utah, campus, which is at the bottom of a bowl-shaped area surrounded by buildings, law enforcement officials said.
A gunman fired the deadly shot at Kirk with a high-powered bolt-action rifle from the rooftop of a campus building a substantial distance from where Kirk was speaking, hitting him in the throat, officials said.
The suspect in the shooting, identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested on Friday night after his father recognized him from surveillance images and video released by investigators, authorities said.
“This is a police chief’s nightmare,” Chief Jeff Long of the Utah Valley University campus police department said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Witnesses told ABC News that the event was not just open to the students on campus, but to the general public as well.
Long said he worked with Kirk’s private security team to establish security protocols for the event, which was the first stop on a nationwide tour of college campuses Kirk launched, called The American Comeback Tour.
“We worked together. He has his team and they do this all over the country. We all know that. It’s not uncommon for them. They’re very comfortable on campuses. And I was coordinating with his lead security guy,” Long said.
Turning Point USA did not respond to an ABC News request for comment.
Long said six campus police officers were working the event, including some in plainclothes who were monitoring the crowd.
“We train for these things, and you think you have things covered, and these things, unfortunately, they happen,” Long said. “You try to get your bases covered and, unfortunately, today [Wednesday] we didn’t. Because of that, we have this tragic incident.”
But multiple witnesses who attended the event told ABC News there seemed to be little to no security at all.
“We walked in, we were kind of surprised because there was like no security check. They didn’t check us for IDs. They didn’t pat us down. You just walked in,” Jasmine Martinez, a mother of five, told ABC News on Thursday.
Justin Hicken, who also attended the event, said he, too, was surprised by the seeming lack of security.
“I just followed the crowd into some of the campus buildings and … once you made your way through the campus buildings, it opens up into a courtyard where the stage or the amphitheater drops down like a pit,” Hicken told ABC News, adding that he also was not scrutinized by any security when he arrived at the free event.
He said that while the crowd was mostly comprised of college-aged people, “There were people of all ages there.”
“There were elderly people with walkers, there were children, there were families. It was a big group,” Hicken said. “I would say it was probably about 97% or 98% pro-Charlie. There were a few people you could tell were in opposition to him being there but for the most part, it was a very pro-Charlie crowd.”
Before the event, an online petition was circulated asking school officials to prevent Kirk from speaking on the UVU campus. The petition stated in part that “Charlie Kirk is known for his divisive rhetoric that often supports policies and laws which aren’t inclusive and can marginalize various communities.” The petition gathered more than 900 signatures.
“We affirm our commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue,” the university said in a Sept. 3 statement in response to the petition. “The university respects the rights of student clubs and organizations to invite various speakers to campus. As a public institution, UVU upholds First Amendment rights and fosters an environment where ideas – popular or controversial – can be exchanged freely, energetically, and civilly.”
However, Don Mihalek, a retired senior special agent for the U.S. Secret Service and an ABC News contributor, questioned the location of the stage with roofs of buildings surrounding the area where Kirk was shot, given that President Donald Trump was shot at a July 13, 2024, campaign rally at an outdoor venue in Butler, Pennsylvania, by a man who fired from rooftop 400 feet from where Trump was speaking.
Investigators said the gunman who shot Kirk fired an older model imported Mauser .30-06 caliber bolt-action rifle from the roof of a building and appeared to have a clear line of sight to where Kirk was seated under a shade canopy more than 100 yards away.
“The location of the event was in the middle of a college quad, it sounds like, which was surrounded by tall buildings, which present line-of-sight issues,” Mihalek said.
Mihalek added, “In my view, in this day and age, you can’t not do proper advanced planning for an event, especially an outdoor event, and take into account all the standard security measures for an event.”
Mihalek said pre-planning for possible security issues, including access control to the event, line-of-sight issues and monitoring of the crowd, “all has to be baked into the event planning process.”
Robert Boyce, the retired chief of detectives for the New York Police Department and an ABC News contributor, said that from a security standpoint, the outdoor venue should have never been chosen for an event featuring such a controversial speaker.
Boyce further said that the venue for the event shouldn’t have been outdoors.
“For a controversial person speaking in any way, with any kind of petition, any outside threats we don’t know right now, you really can’t have it outside,” Boyce said. “You have to have a door to control and that’s important, especially in these times. We’re really at a different point in our history that’s really hard to believe. But you want to control that door. This way, you know who’s inside and you can walk around and see and identify anybody who’s acting out of sorts.”
Boyce also questioned why the event was opened to the general public.
“It’s inexplicable to me why a university would let outside people come in and watch this on their campus, and that has to be answered,” Boyce said.
In response to the questions raised about the security plan for the event, a university spokesperson told ABC News, “I’m not able to answer those specifics at this time.”
The university spokesperson directed ABC News to a page on the school’s website answering some frequently asked questions about the Charlie Kirk event. Under the question “What security measures were taken?” the website states “Kirk’s lead security staff coordinated with UVU Police Chief Jeff Long regarding the security measures,” echoing Chief Long’s statement during the Sept. 10 news conference.
The website page also said that Kirk had previously visited the school with Turning Point USA in 2019.
The Utah Board of Higher Education – the governing body for the Utah System of Higher Education, which is comprised of 16 public colleges and universities, including UVU – issued a statement last week, saying it will “continue working with state leaders to identify ways to keep our campuses safe and welcoming for everyone.”
The statement added, “We believe strongly that Utah’s campuses must remain places where individuals can share and debate differing viewpoints openly and respectfully. Attempts to diminish that freedom have no place here and we will continue working to ensure our students, faculty and visitors feel safe to express themselves.”
Former FBI Director James Comey talks backstage on June 19, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. Carsten Koall/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As the Justice Department’s criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey looks increasingly imperiled, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan and other DOJ officials are leveling unusual public attacks at the judge overseeing the case by mischaracterizing comments he made at a Wednesday hearing.
“Personal attacks — like Judge Nachmanoff referring to me as a ‘puppet’ — don’t change the facts or the law,” Halligan said in an statement exclusively to the New York Post.
“A federal judge should be neutral and impartial. Instead, this judge launched an outrageous and unprofessional personal attack yesterday in open court against US Attorney Lindsey Halligan. DOJ will continue to follow the facts and the law,” DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said in a statement posted to ‘X’ Thursday.
The statements refer to an exchange between U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff and Comey’s attorney Michael Dreeben in which Nachmanoff questioned whether their position was that Halligan was serving as a “puppet” or a “stalking horse” for President Donald Trump in his orders for retribution against Comey.
But Nachmanoff never asserted directly that Halligan was a “puppet,” and didn’t dispute in court when DOJ attorney Tyler Lemons flatly rejected that characterization.
“So your view is that Ms. Halligan is a stalking horse or a puppet, for want of a better word, doing the president’s bidding?” Judge Nachmanoff asked Dreeben during the exchange.
“Well, I don’t want to use language about Ms. Halligan that suggests anything other than she did what she was told to do,” Dreeben replied. “The president of the United States has the authority to direct prosecutions. She worked in the White House. She was surely aware of the president’s directive.”
Comey was indicted in September on charges of lying to Congress after Trump forced out previous U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert and installed Halligan, a White House staffer with no prosecutorial experience, then called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to act “NOW!!!” to prosecute Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Rep. Adam Schiff. Comey has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
An attorney for Comey argued during Wednesday’s hearing that by replacing Siebert with his former staffer and lawyer, and publicly calling for his political foes to be charged, Trump was “manipulating the machinery of prosecution” and committing an “egregious violation of bedrock constitutional values.”
Halligan also testified that the grand jury that indicted Comey voted to indict him on two of the three counts submitted in the original indictment, but that the final revised indictment reflecting the two counts Comey was ultimately charged with was not reviewed by the full grand jury — only by the jury foreperson and one other grand juror.
A photo of Theresa Fusco is shown during a press briefing with the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, Oct. 15, 2025. ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Authorities in suburban New York believe they have closed a murder case that had been open for more than 40 years.
In November 1984, 16-year-old Theresa Fusco disappeared after she was fired from her job working the snack bar at a roller rink in Lynbrook. Three men who had been convicted of her death were exonerated in 2003 based on DNA evidence.
On Wednesday, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office announced 63-year-old man Richard Bilodeau has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with Fusco’s death. The indictment further charges him with second-degree murder during the commission or attempted commission of first-degree rape.
A discarded smoothie cup was the critical piece of evidence in the nearly 41-year-old murder case that Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said “sent shockwaves through the tight-knit Lynbrook community” and a fear that young women were at risk.
Investigators had been surveilling the suspect for months when a break came in February. Bilodeau went to get a smoothie not far from his home in Center Moriches and investigators recovered the discarded cup and straw from the trash and brought it for testing, officials said.
“The DNA from that straw, Richard Bilodeau’s DNA, was a match,” Donnelly said during a press briefing Wednesday. “The DNA in this case led us straight to Richard Bilodeau.”
Donnelly said Bilodeau, who lived by himself in Center Moriches, had been under investigation since early 2024.
He was arrested Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge. Donnelly said he denied knowing Fusco, “but science proves otherwise.”
“Through his denials that he had ever known her name, who she was, he made kind of a flippant comment about the 1980s. He said, ‘People got away with murder.’ Well, I’ll tell you something, Mr. Bilodeau, I’ve got you now,” Donnelly said.
Fusco’s father said he “never gave up hope” and the indictment “brings closure” to him and his family.
“It’s heartbreaking to go through this over and over again, but this seems like a finalization and I’m very grateful, very grateful, for me and my family to come to an end like this, than to constantly be a cold case situation,” Tom Fusco said during Wednesday’s press briefing.
In 1984, Bilodeau was a 23-year-old living with his grandparents in Lynbrook, a mile from Hot Skates, the roller rink where Fusco had worked, officials said.
Fusco’s body was found buried under leaves and shipping pallets. Police said she had been strangled, sexually assaulted and beaten.
The murder stunned her Nassau County community, especially when two other teens went missing in the same area, which became known as the Lynbrook Triangle, a local take on the Bermuda Triangle, known for its disappearances.
Three men were charged in Fusco’s death, convicted and sentenced to more than 30 years in prison.
The men insisted they were innocent, and, in 2003, DNA technology caught up to the case and confirmed semen found on the girl’s body was from another man and their convictions were vacated.
One of the wrongly convicted, John Restivo, told “Good Morning America” in 2003, “For years … someone would ask me how I’m doing today. I’d say, ‘Not good, I woke up on the wrong side of the wall this morning.’ Yesterday I was able to say, ‘I woke up on the right side of the wall this morning.'”
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
