The relative who spoke with NBC News served with Lakanwal, supporting U.S. troops.

“We were the ones that were targeted by the Taliban in Afghanistan,” he said.

“I cannot believe it that he might do this,” the relative added.

Lakanwal came to the United States five months after then-President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which led to the Taliban takeover of the country.

Lakanwal, who grew up in Khost province, was living in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five children, the relative said.

The relative said he has not spoken to Lakanwal in several months. The last time they spoke, Lakanwal was working for Amazon and Amazon Flex.

Amazon told NBC News that Lanakwal wasn’t an employee of Amazon, but was an independent contractor for Amazon Flex and has not been active recently.

Amazon Flex is a delivery service run by Amazon where people use their own vehicles to make deliveries as contract workers, similar to the arrangement Uber has with its drivers.

“I don’t know what happened,” the relative said, his voice cracking with emotion. He added: “I need your help to know why this happened.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X that the suspect was “one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration.” Operation Allies Welcome was a Biden-era directive to support “vulnerable Afghans” and those who worked alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan to safely resettle in the United States.

In remarks Wednesday, President Donald Trump said he is “determined” that the shooter “pays the steepest possible price.”

Trump said that the suspect was flown into the United States by the Biden administration in September 2021 and that his status was extended under Biden-era legislation. Trump then called for the re-examination of all those who entered the United States from Afghanistan during the Biden administration.

The suspect has been identified as an Afghan national who used a handgun, according to two senior U.S. law enforcement officials.

Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based group AfghanEvac, said in a statement that Afghan immigrants and wartime allies who resettle in the United States undergo extensive security vetting and that “this individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.”

Late Wednesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said processing of immigration requests related to Afghan nationals “is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”