1 of 2 W.V. National Guard Members Shot in D.C. Dies

By María Paula Mijares Torres and Josh Wingrove

Source Bloomberg News

One member of the West Virginia National Guard who was shot in the attack near the White House in Washington, D.C., died after being in critical condition, President Donald Trump said Thursday.

U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, originally from Webster Springs, West Virginia, died after being shot Wednesday. U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition.

“As you know, the other young man is fighting for his life,” Trump said during a call with several service members. “He’s in very bad shape. He’s fighting for his life, and hopefully we’ll get better news with respect to him.”

Federal authorities have identified the suspected shooter as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national who previously worked with U.S. forces and the CIA in Afghanistan before arriving in the U.S. in 2021. He was subdued shortly after the shooting and taken into custody. Trump said he is in serious condition.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday that she would seek the death penalty for Lakanwal if either of the shooting victims died. Federal authorities have launched a sprawling, nationwide terrorism investigation into this attack that included searches in Washington state and California.

Beckstrom began her military service in June 2023. She and Wolfe had been in Washington since the beginning of the National Guard deployment in the U.S. capital in August.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for DC, said at a press conference earlier Thursday that the suspect is currently facing three charges of intent to kill while armed.

Trump, Vice President JD Vance and others in the administration quickly blamed the Biden administration for letting Lakanwal into the U.S. and seized on the case to push for deeper immigration curbs, including halting reviews of Afghan immigration proceedings and ordering a review of those already in the U.S. That raises the prospect that settlement rights for Afghan allies of U.S. forces may be curtailed.

Trump on Thursday criticized the Biden administration over its handling of evacuation flights that included Afghan asylum seekers as U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.

“When it comes to asylum, when they’re flown in, it’s very hard to get them out,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “No matter how you want to do it, it’s very hard to get them out but we’re going to be getting them all out now.”

On Thursday, Joseph Edlow, the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a social media post that his agency, under Trump’s orders, is conducting “a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.” He didn’t name specific countries.

“This atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country,” Trump said.

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