{"id":161893,"date":"2025-11-27T04:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T04:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/161893\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T04:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T04:54:08","slug":"two-us-national-guard-soldiers-in-critical-condition-after-shooting-in-washington-dc-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/161893\/","title":{"rendered":"Two US national guard soldiers in critical condition after shooting in Washington DC \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two US<\/a> national guard\u00a0soldiers were\u00a0shot on Wednesday\u00a0in Washington DC<\/a>\u00a0in what officials described as a targeted attack,\u00a0and the suspect was in custody after suffering gunshot wounds during the incident.<\/p>\n

US president Donald Trump<\/a> was in Florida at the time of the attack, which prompted the White House to go into lockdown as law enforcement from multiple federal and city agencies swarmed the area.<\/p>\n

The suspect came around a corner and began firing at the guard soldiers, who were on a high-visibility patrol, metropolitan police assistant chief Jeff Carroll said. Both victims were in a critical condition, FBI<\/a> director Kash Patel said at a press briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a targeted attack,\u201d\u00a0Washington\u00a0mayor Muriel Bowser said.<\/p>\n

West Virginia governor Patrick Morrisey\u00a0had initially\u00a0said in a post on X that both victims were members of his state\u2019s national guard and had died from their injuries. But he soon posted a second statement that cited \u201cconflicting reports\u201d about their condition.<\/p>\n

The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear,\u00a0and officials said the investigation was still in its early stages.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump is at his resort in Florida ahead of Thursday\u2019s Thanksgiving holiday, while US vice president JD Vance<\/a> is in Kentucky.<\/p>\n

In a social media post, Mr Trump called the suspected shooter an \u201canimal\u201d who would \u201cpay a very steep price\u201d and praised the national guard.<\/p>\n

The shooting unfolded near Farragut Square, a popular lunch spot for office workers just a few streets away from the White House. The park, where lampposts are wrapped in wreaths and bows for the holiday season, is flanked by fast-casual restaurants and a coffee shop, as well as two metro stops.<\/p>\n

\"FBIFBI director Kash Patel (left) and Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington DC, hold a press conference close to the scene. Photograph: EPA <\/p>\n

Witnesses described a chaotic scene after shots were fired with pedestrians fleeing.<\/p>\n

Mike Ryan (55) said he was on his way to buy lunch nearby when he heard what sounded like gunfire. He ran half a block away and heard another round of apparent gunfire.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Donald Trump at 79: slowing pace and shorter days highlight realities of ageing in officeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

When he made his way back to the scene, he saw two national guard members on the ground across the street, with people trying to resuscitate one of them. At the same time, other national guard members had pinned someone on the ground, Ryan said.<\/p>\n

Another witness, Emma McDonald, said she saw one of the guard members carried away on a stretcher minutes after the shooting, his head covered in blood and an automated compression system attached to his chest.<\/p>\n

National guard soldiers have been in\u00a0Washington\u00a0since August, when Mr Trump deployed them to the streets as part of his contentious immigration and crime crackdown targeting Democratic-led cities.<\/p>\n

\"MembersMembers of the US national guard gather on a corner near the scene in Washington DC. Photograph: Eric Lee\/New York Times<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, there were about 2,200 national guard troops in\u00a0Washington, including contingents from the District of Columbia as well as Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia and Alabama.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump, a Republican, has suggested repeatedly that crime has disappeared from the capital as a result of the deployment, which was opposed by local officials and heavily criticised by Democrats.<\/p>\n

Secretary of war Pete Hegseth told reporters that Mr Trump had asked for 500 additional guard soldiers to be deployed to\u00a0Washington\u00a0in the wake of the shooting. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two US national guard\u00a0soldiers were\u00a0shot on Wednesday\u00a0in Washington DC\u00a0in what officials described as a targeted attack,\u00a0and the suspect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,42,43,40,38,41,39,90,14053],"class_list":{"0":"post-161893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-washington-dc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}