Surprise, Surprise: D.C. shooter showed clear warning signs of spiraling mental health

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A leading national refugee agency was warned multiple times that the Afghan terror suspect accused of murdering one National Guard member and critically injuring another was spiraling into mania and mental illness beginning in 2023, according to a bombshell email leak.

Despite this, and an alleged failure to maintain his mandated contact with state social services, he still managed to win asylum in April of this year.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal‘s behavior was so disturbing that a local community advocate reached out to a refugee organization for help, according to emails to the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) seen by the Associated Press.

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He was brought to the US in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, moving to Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and their five young sons.

But he reportedly struggled to assimilate, failed to hold down a steady job or commit to learning English, according to the emails.

Alternating between “periods of dark isolation and reckless travel,” Lakanwal sometimes spent weeks in his “darkened room, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife or older kids,” the person wrote.

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Lakanwal also failed to stay in contact with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) as was mandated by the terms of his entry into the US, except for “interim” weeks where he would “do the right things,” according to the emails.

He was so depressed that the community member feared he would harm himself, according to the emails.

When his wife would leave him with the kids for a week while she traveled to visit relatives, his children would go to school unwashed and in dirty clothes without having eaten well, according to the person.

The children’s school raised concerns about his behavior, and the family even faced eviction at one point in 2023 after months of not paying rent.

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