Judge extends order allowing involuntary feeding of man charged in Guard shooting to Nov. 13

By Ezra Whitfield

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has extended until Nov. 13 an order that lets Bureau of Prisons medical staff feed and treat Rahmanullah Lakanwal without his consent, after the Justice Department asked for a renewed order to keep the man charged in last year’s shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members alive.

U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta granted the government’s sealed motion in part in a minute order Friday. The order he first signed on Aug. 29 had been set to expire Wednesday, Oct. 28. Mehta wrote that it “is hereby extended until November 13, 2026, without objection from Defendant.”

The government’s filing is titled a “Motion for a Renewed Order to Provide Defendant with Nonconsensual Nutritional and Medical Care Necessary to Sustain His Life.” Mehta ordered that the motion itself stay under seal, according to the docket, so its details are not public.

A briefing schedule and a possible sealed hearing

The extension buys time for a fuller fight over whether the order should be renewed again. Under Friday’s order, Lakanwal’s lawyers must respond to the government’s motion by Nov. 6, and prosecutors may reply by Nov. 10. Mehta told both sides to hold Nov. 12 at 10 a.m. “for a sealed hearing, if necessary.”

The August order, filed on the public docket, allows nonconsensual feeding through a nasogastric tube, intravenously or through an existing gastrostomy tube while his refusal threatens his life. It does not authorize surgically placing a new gastrostomy tube. It also directs medical staff at the Bureau of Prisons and at any facility treating Lakanwal to provide care needed to preserve his life.

When Mehta first signed the order, he wrote that the treatment was meant to “preserve” Lakanwal’s life “or prevent a foreseeable deterioration in his condition that if not treated is likely to lead to death,” CBS News reported. The order runs “until adequate oral intake of food and liquid and adequate acceptance of medical treatment is achieved and defendant’s life is no longer threatened.”

In earlier filings, the Justice Department said Lakanwal was moved to a D.C. hospital on July 9 on an “emergency basis” after he began refusing food in June, according to CBS News. It is not publicly known why he is refusing food and care.

The case

Lakanwal, an Afghan national who entered the United States on humanitarian parole in 2021, is charged with killing Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and critically wounding Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe in a shooting several blocks from the White House in November 2025. Both were members of the West Virginia National Guard deployed to Washington. He is also charged with trying to kill two other service members who subdued him.

He faces more than a dozen federal charges, including two that carry a possible death sentence, as well as first-degree murder, assault and gun charges under D.C. law. He has pleaded not guilty. The Justice Department has said it is reviewing whether to seek the death penalty.

In September, Mehta granted unopposed motions to designate the case as complex and to exclude time under the Speedy Trial Act, and he reset a status conference for Nov. 18, according to the docket. Michelle Peterson has filed motions on his behalf, according to the docket.

The case is United States v. Lakanwal, No. 1:26-cr-00004, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which sits in the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on Constitution Avenue.

The Inquisitor is seeking comment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, his defense lawyers, the West Virginia National Guard and Physicians for Human Rights, which has written about force-feeding in detention.