WASHINGTON (AP) — A man accused of shooting two National Guard troops near the White House pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and assault charges during his first hearing before a judge, appearing remotely by video from a hospital bed.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who was also shot during last Wednesday’s confrontation, said through an interpreter that he was in pain and couldn’t open his eyes. A court-appointed defense attorney entered Lakanwal’s plea on his behalf during a brief hearing in Washington, D.C.

Lakanwal is charged with first-degree murder, assault with intent to kill and illegal possession of a firearm in the shooting that killed Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24.

Another National Guard member heard gunshots and saw Beckstrom and Wolfe fall to the ground as Lakanwal fired a gun and screamed, “Allahu Akbar!” according to a police report filed in court Tuesday. Lakanwal chased after and shot at another Guard member before troops detained him as he tried to reload his gun, the report says.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Renee Raymond ordered Lakanwal held without bond. His case is due back in court Jan. 14.

Beckstrom and Wolfe were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard for President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement surge in the nation’s capital, which has flooded the city with federal agents and troops since August.

Authorities were investigating a possible motive for what they described as an ambush-style attack.

A prosecutor, Ariel Dean, described the shooting as a “shocking crime” and said it appears that Lakanwal “traversed the city to some extent” before approaching the troops and shooting them.

Raymond ordered him detained, citing the “sheer terror that resulted” from Lakanwal’s actions. The magistrate said it appears that Lakanwal, a resident of Washington state, travelled across the country “with a specific purpose in mind.” She described the government’s case against him as “exceedingly strong.”

Defense attorney Terrence Austin noted that Lakanwal doesn’t have any prior criminal record.

After the hearing, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Lakanwal will be taken to a correctional facility that can address his “medical concerns” once he is well enough to leave the hospital. Pirro said Lakanwal could face additional charges in federal court as the investigation continues. Attorney General Pam Bondi ultimately will decide whether to seek the death penalty in the case, according to Pirro.

“That is a very weighty decision. That is a decision that comes later in time,” she said.

The rare shooting of National Guard members on American soil came amid court fights and a broader public policy debate about the Trump administration’s use of the military to combat what officials cast as an out-of-control crime problem.

Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that resettled Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, officials said. Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement.

“This is an individual about whom we don’t know a lot. But we will, trust me, before it’s over,” Pirro said.

Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack” and criticized the Biden administration for enabling Afghans who worked with U.S. forces during the Afghanistan War to enter the U.S. The president has said he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and expel millions of immigrants from the country.

NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione is due back in court on Tuesday for the second day of a hearing in his bid to bar New York prosecutors from using evidence that they say links him to last year’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The pretrial hearing in Mangione’s state murder case kicked off Monday with prosecutors playing surveillance videos of the Dec. 4, 2024, killing and security footage of his arrest five days later at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.

Mangione, 27, gripped a pen in his right hand, making a fist at times, as prosecutors played the audio of a 911 call from a McDonald’s manager relaying concerns from customers that Mangione looked like the suspect in Thompson’s death.

Mangione’s lawyers are asking Judge Gregory Carro to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors about items seized from his backpack during his arrest, including a 9 mm handgun that prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.

The defense contends the items should be excluded because police didn’t have a warrant to search his backpack. They also want to suppress some statements Mangione made to law enforcement personnel, such as allegedly giving a false name, because officers started asking questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent.

Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Neither trial has been scheduled. The next hearing in the federal case is scheduled for Jan. 9.

Mangione’s lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases, but this week’s hearing pertains only to the state case.

Five witnesses testified on Monday, including a Pennsylvania prison officer who said Mangione told him that at the time of his arrest he had a backpack with foreign currency and a 3D-printed pistol.

Another prison officer said his superintendent told him Mangione was being held under constant watch because the facility “did not want an Epstein-style situation,” referring to Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 jail suicide.

More law enforcement officers are expected to take the witness stand on Tuesday.

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as the executive walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference. Prosecutors say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione was arrested as he ate breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan after the restaurant’s manager told a 911 dispatcher, “I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of — that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York.”

The manager told the dispatcher that she searched online for photos of the suspect that police disseminated. But, as Mangione sat in the restaurant, she said she could only see his eyebrows because he had a beanie pulled down close to his eyes and was wearing a medical face mask.

On Monday, a few dozen Mangione supporters watched the hearing from the back of the courtroom.

One wore a green T-shirt that said: “Without a warrant, it’s not a search, it’s a violation.” Another woman held a doll of the Luigi video game character and had a smaller figurine of him clipped to her purse.

Court officials say the hearing could take more than a week.