Two West Virginia National Guard soldiers were shot on Wednesday near the White House in Washington, DC.

FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters at the scene that the two victims were in a "critical condition."

Police in the US capital said they had arrested one suspect. 

Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser told the press conference that the West Virginia National Guard soldiers were shot in a "targeted attack."

In a speech on Wednesday night, US President Donald Trump called the shooting an "act of terror."

Who is the suspect in the National Guard shooting?

US media reports named the suspect as Rahmanullah L., a 29-year-old Afghan national who lived in Washington state.

He reportedly arrived in the US in 2021, after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, under a special visa program for vulnerable Afghans who had assisted the US during the war.

The suspect worked with US government entities, including the CIA, in Afghanistan before being evacuated as a refugee, broadcaster Fox News reported, citing CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

An unnamed Justice Department official told Reuters news agency the suspect had overstayed his visa and was in the US illegally at the time of the attack.

Trump said after the arrest that the US would re-examine "every single alien" who entered the country from Afghanistan under former US President Joe Biden.

Shortly afterward, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on X that it was indefinitely stopping the processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals, effective immediately.

What else do we know about the DC shooting?

The FBI's Patel said the shooting occurred at around 2:15 p.m. local time (1915 GMT).

Emergency vehicles were seen responding to the area and at least one helicopter landed on the National Mall.

The shooting took place near the Farragut Metro station, less than two blocks from the White House.

DW's correspondent in Washington, Benjamin Alvarez, described a "huge police presence" where authorities had cordoned off the scene and emergency vehicles' lights flashed while helicopter blades were heard overhead.

The Pentagon has said it would send in an additional 500 troops to the US capital in response to the shooting, bringing the total in the city to more than 2,500.

"This will only stiffen our resolve to ensure that we make Washington, DC, safe and beautiful," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, calling the incident "a cowardly, dastardly act." 

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday afternoon, Trump had described the suspect as an "animal."

*Editor's note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and obliges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.

Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez, Karl Sexton