1 of the 2 National Guard members shot on duty in Washington, D.C., has died: Trump
CBC
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a National Guard member had died after being shot in an ambush by an Afghan national near the White House, an attack that drew accusations from his administration of Biden-era immigration vetting failures and prompted a sweeping review of asylum cases.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds and her fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was "fighting for his life," Trump said, as investigators conducted what officials said was a terrorism investigation after Wednesday's shooting.
"Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we're talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person ... She's just passed away. She's no longer with us," Trump said Thursday in his first live remarks since the shooting.
Federal and municipal officials earlier Thursday identified the two National Guard members shot mere blocks from the White House, and said multiple search warrants are being carried out to try to understand the movements and motivations of the suspect.
The two soldiers are part of a militarized law enforcement mission Trump ordered months ago.
"A lone gunman opened fire without provocation, ambush-style, armed with a 357 Smith and Wesson revolver," Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters at a morning news conference.
Pirro identified the victims as Beckstrom and Wolfe.
The two members of the West Virginia National Guard were on a "high-visibility patrol" outside the entrance to a subway station when the suspect confronted them, officials had previously said.
They had been sworn in for duty in D.C. less than 24 hours before they were shot, Pirro said.
"These young people should be at home in West Virginia with their families [for Thanksgiving]," said Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser.
The suspect was wounded in an exchange of gunfire before he was arrested. Officials on Thursday appeared to indicate that it was another Guard member who wounded the suspect.
He was identified previously by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national whose last known residence is in Washington state.
Lakanwal is in hospital under "heavy guard," Pirro said, with the extent of his injuries not known.
A former landlord of Lakanwal's told The Associated Press he had settled in Bellingham, Wash., about 125 kilometres north of Seattle, with his wife and five children.
