The shooting of National Guard members was “targeted”, said the US attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, noting that Mr Lakanwal drove his car across the country from Bellingham in Washington state to carry out this attack.
After the shooting, other National Guard members on the scene shot Mr Lakanwal and detained him.
He faces more than a decade behind bars if found guilty of three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and one count of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
He remains in hospital while being treated for his injuries.
In the wake of the shooting, which Donald Trump labelled an “act of terror”, the president said that he would take steps to remove any foreigner “from any country who does not belong here”.
On Wednesday, the US suspended all immigration requests from Afghans.
Trump said that the US “must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden”.
On Thursday, Joseph Edlow US Citizenship and Immigration Services chief said the president had directed him to conduct “a full scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern”.
In addition to reviewing immigration efforts, Trump said he would send another 500 National Guard members to patrol the streets of Washington.
Already more than 2,000 troops have been guarding the nation’s capital since August, when the president began deploying troops to cities to tackle what he called “out of control” crime.
National Guard troops are a reservist force that can be activated to serve as military troops, but have limited power as they cannot enforce the law or make arrests.
Hafizullah Maroof and Sayed Abdullah Nizami of BBC Afghan Service contributed to this report
