U.S. President Donald Trump and West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrissey said on Thursday that a National Guard member had died after being shot along with another member in an ambush by an Afghan national near the White House the day before.
Officials have released the name of the suspect, who is in custody, and the names of the two Guard members who were shot, but the suspect’s motive for the attack is not yet clear.
Here’s what we know so far, and what we don’t know:
Condition of the National Guard members
Trump said Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds and her fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was still “fighting for his life” after Wednesday’s shooting.
They belong to the West Virginia National Guard, which deployed hundreds of troops to the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s crime-fighting mission that involved taking over the local police department. There were nearly 2,200 Guard members in D.C. for the mission.
“I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation that the terrorist attack yesterday in our nation’s capital, in which a savage monster gunned down two service members in the West Virginia National Guard, who were deployed as part of the DC Task Force,” Trump said in a Thanksgiving call for U.S. military service members, during which he said he had learned of Beckstom’s death.
“She’s just passed away,” Trump said. “She’s no longer with us. She’s looking down at us right now. Her parents are with her.”
The president called Beckstrom an “incredible person, outstanding in every single way.”
Morrissey also confirmed Beckstrom’s death in a social media post, saying it was “not the result we hoped for, but it is the result we all feared.”
“Sarah served with courage, extraordinary resolve, and an unwavering sense of duty to her state and to her nation. She answered the call to serve, stepped forward willingly, and carried out her mission with the strength and character that define the very best of the West Virginia National Guard,” he wrote.
“Today, we honor her bravery and her sacrifice as we mourn the loss of a young woman who gave everything she had in defense of others. We will forever hold her family, her friends, and her fellow Guardsmen in our prayers as they grieve what no family should ever have to bear.”
Both Beckstrom and Wolfe have been on orders in Washington, D.C., since August, according to the West Virginia National Guard.
Beckstrom, from Webster Springs, West Virginia, entered service in June 2023. Wolfe, who is from Martinsburg, West Virginia, entered service in February 2019.
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Morrissey initially posted on social media Wednesday that two of his state’s Guard members were killed. He later walked that back, saying his office was “receiving conflicting reports” about their condition. Morrisey has not elaborated.
How the attack unfolded
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, drove across the country to launch an “ambush-style” attack with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver.
Video reviewed by investigators showed the assailant “came around the corner” and immediately started firing at the troops, according to Jeffery Carroll, an executive assistant D.C. police chief.
At least one Guard member exchanged gunfire with the shooter, a law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Troops ran over and held down the shooter, Carroll said, and he was taken into custody. Authorities believe he was the only gunman.
Carroll said that it was not clear whether one of the Guard members or a law enforcement officer shot the suspect and that investigators so far had no information on a motive.
The suspect’s wounds were not believed to be life-threatening, one of the officials said.
The suspect and his pathway to the US
Lakanwal, 29, entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the chaotic 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.
Supporters have said there was extensive vetting and the program offered a lifeline to people at risk of Taliban reprisals.
The initiative brought roughly 76,000 people to the U.S., many of whom had worked alongside U.S. troops and diplomats as interpreters and translators. The program has drawn intense criticism from President Donald Trump and other Republicans over what they have argued are gaps in the vetting process and the speed of admissions.
Prior to his arrival in the United States, the suspect worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” John Ratcliffe, the spy agency’s director, said in a statement.
Ratcliffe did not specify what work Lakanwal did, but said the relationship “ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation” of U.S. service members from Afghanistan.
A resident of the eastern Afghan province of Khost who identified himself as Lakanwal’s cousin said Lakanwal was originally from the province. The cousin, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said Lakanwal had worked in a special Afghan Army unit known as Zero Units. A former official from the unit, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said Lakanwal was a team leader and his brother was a platoon leader.
Zero Units were paramilitary units manned by Afghans but backed by the CIA and also served in front-line fighting with CIA paramilitary officers. Activists had attributed abuses to the units. They played a key role in the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country, providing security around Kabul International Airport as the Americans and others fell back during the Taliban offensive that seized the country.
The cousin said Lakanwal started out working as a security guard for the unit in 2012, and was later promoted to become a team leader and a GPS specialist.
Lakanwal’s former landlord, Kristina Widman, said Lakanwal had been living in Washington state with his wife and five children.
Pirro said Lakanwal currently faces charges of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
The charges could be upgraded, she added.
“We are praying that they survive and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree. But make no mistake, if they do not, that will certainly be the charge,” she said.
Pirro said that “it’s too soon to say” what the suspect’s motives were.
More National Guard troops
Soon after the shooting, Trump said he would send 500 more National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. It’s not clear where the additional troops would come from.
As of early November, the D.C. National Guard had the largest number on the ground, with 949 members. In addition to West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama also had forces in the capital early this month.
A federal judge last week ordered an end to the Guard deployment but also put her order on hold for 21 days to allow the Trump administration time to either remove the troops or appeal.
—With additional files from Reuters and Global News
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