National Guardsman shot while trying to break up fight near Capitol Hill, suspect in custody

A Washington, DC National Guardsman was shot by a gunman in the nation's capital overnight, being struck in the leg. The suspect was also shot during the encounter. Both were transported to the hospital and are expected to survive after suffering non-life-threatening injuries. 

DC Metropolitan Police Department Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll made the announcement about the shooting early on Monday morning.

Police said that National Guard troops were in a van when they heard a fight going on near Capitol Hill and then moved to intervene. When they did so, they found a suspect with a gun who was ordered to drop it. The suspect refused and began to fire the weapon at the law enforcement officers, who returned fire.

"So both have gunshot wounds," Carroll said, "the National Guard member and the suspect." He indicated that there were seven or eight National Guard troops that were in the van when they approached the fight to intervene. There were a total of three National Guard members who shot at the suspect during the encounter.

The shooting comes nearly a year after two other National Guard members were shot in Washington, DC in an ambush-style attack just before Thanksgiving 2025. The suspect in that case, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who drove across the country from Washington state to the capital leading up to the shooting, has been charged with the murder of National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom and the attempted murder of National Guard member Andrew Wolfe, along with a slew of other counts.