Washington, DC [US], November 30 (ANI): The Afghan national who was arrested a day before the Wednesday shooting near the White House has been charged at the state level with making a terrorist threat in Texas, Fox News reported.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News that Mohammad Dawood Alokozay was taken into custody on Tuesday after he posted a video on TikTok allegedly indicating he was building a bomb with the intent to target a building in the Fort Worth area in Texas.
Alokozay had migrated to the US under “Operation Allies Welcome” during Joe Biden’s tenure, following the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. Notably, suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal (29), who is being charged with first-degree murder for allegedly shooting two National Guard members near the White House, also migrated to the US in 2021 under the same programme.
Alokozay was arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety and an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in a coordinated law enforcement effort, Fox News reported, adding that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has since lodged a detainer on Alokozay following his arrest.
His arrest this week came a day after the Wednesday shooting near the White House that killed one of the two National Guard members in Washington, DC. One of them, Spec. Sarah Beckstrom, has died, while the other remains wounded.
Lakanwal, the Afghan national accused of carrying out the shooting, will be charged with first-degree murder, the Washington Post reported earlier. Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for Washington, DC, said that more counts are likely to follow against suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
The Washington Post reported that the upgraded charges of first-degree murder, instead of the initial charges of assault, raise the possibility that the suspected attacker could face the death penalty in the case.
Although capital punishment has been abolished in the District of Columbia, Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday said she will seek the death penalty against the man accused of shooting two West Virginia National Guard members in Washington, the Hill reported.
In August, US President Donald Trump asserted that his government would seek capital punishment in every murder case that occurs in Washington, DC.
Meanwhile, Trump on Friday said that he would permanently pause migration from all “third-world countries” to allow the US system to terminate illegal admissions into the United States. (ANI)
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