WASHINGTON — The FBI searched multiple properties in Washington state and San Diego on Thursday in what officials said was a terrorism probe into an Afghan national suspected of shooting two National Guard members, who remained in critical condition in hospital.

Investigators seized numerous electronic devices from the suspect’s house in Washington state, including cellphones, laptops, and iPads, FBI director Kash Patel told a news conference in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro identified the two wounded Guardsmen as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24. She said they had been sworn in as National Guard members fewer than 24 hours before the shooting.

Pirro said the suspect ambushed the two while they were patrolling near the White House. Armed with a powerful handgun, a .357 Magnum, he shot one Guardsman who fell and then shot again before firing multiple times at the second Guardsman.

The suspect, who has been identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, had worked with U.S. partner forces during the war in Afghanistan, Patel said. Lakanwal was wounded in an exchange of gunfire before he was arrested.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe told Fox News and the New York Times that Lakanwal had worked with CIA-backed local units in Afghanistan.

“He drove his vehicle cross-country from the state of Washington with the intended target of coming to our nation’s capital,” Pirro told the news conference.

According to the DHS, Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program to resettle thousands of Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the Afghanistan war and feared reprisals from Taliban forces who seized control after the U.S. withdrawal there.

President Donald Trump, who was at his resort in Florida at the time of the attack, said his administration would “re-examine” all Afghans who came to the U.S. during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Pirro and Patel blamed the Biden administration for improperly vetting Lakanwal.

But a Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Lakanwal applied for asylum in December 2024 and was approved on April 23 of this year, three months after Trump took office. Lakanwal, 29, who resided in Washington state, had no known criminal history, the official said.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said on Wednesday it had halted processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely, “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

The two Guardsmen were part of a militarized law enforcement mission ordered by Trump months ago and challenged in court by Washington, D.C., officials. Trump ordered 500 more troops to be deployed in the capital in the wake of the shooting.

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(Reporting by Leah Douglas, Jana Winter and Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Jeff Mason, Steve Gorman, Jasper Ward, Kanishka Singh, Ted Hesson and David Morgan; Writing by Steve Gorman and Joseph Ax; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Stephen Coates, Ross Colvin and Deepa Babington)