{"id":287184,"date":"2025-11-28T02:52:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T02:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/287184\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T02:52:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T02:52:06","slug":"national-guard-member-sarah-beckstrom-has-died-after-shooting-in-washington-dc-trump-announces-washington-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/287184\/","title":{"rendered":"National guard member Sarah Beckstrom has died after shooting in Washington DC, Trump announces | Washington DC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Beckstrom, one of the national guard troops shot in Washington DC<\/a> on Wednesday, has died, Donald Trump said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we\u2019re talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person \u2026 She\u2019s just passed away. She\u2019s no longer with us,\u201d Trump said in his first live remarks since the shooting.<\/p>\n

Beckstrom, 20, was one of two members of the national guards shot near the White House in a targeted attack<\/a>. The other member, Andrew Wolfe, 24, is still fighting for his life, according to the president.<\/p>\n

Beckstrom\u2019s father had told the New York Times<\/a> in a phone call earlier in the day that his daughter was unlikely to recover. \u201cI\u2019m holding her hand right now,\u201d Gary Beckstrom said. \u201cShe has a mortal wound. It\u2019s not going to be a recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Beckstrom and Wolfe belonged to the West Virginia National Guard, which deployed hundreds of troops to Washington as part of Trump\u2019s crime-fighting mission in the capital.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, West Virginia\u2019s governor, Patrick Morrisey, confirmed Beckstrom\u2019s death in a social media post: \u201cSarah 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckstrom, from Webster Springs, West Virginia, entered service in June 2023.<\/p>\n

Authorities have identified the suspect in the attack as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29.<\/p>\n

Little is known yet about his life, but officials have confirmed that Lakanwal came to the US in September 2021 from his native Afghanistan under a program that gave some Afghans who had worked for the US government entry visas. He was granted asylum in April this year, under the Trump administration, Reuters reported. Lakanwal worked with CIA-backed military units<\/a> during the US war in Afghanistan, the CIA has confirmed.<\/p>\n

A resident of eastern Afghanistan who identified himself as Lakanwal\u2019s cousin told the Associated Press that he was originally from the province of Khost. The cousin, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said Lakanwal had worked in a special Afghan Army unit.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Lakanwal\u2019s former landlord, Kristina Widman, said Lakanwal had been living in Washington state with his wife and five children.<\/p>\n

Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for Washington DC, said at a news conference Thursday that Lakanwal drove across the country to launch an \u201cambush-style\u201d attack with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver.<\/p>\n

The suspect shot one guard member twice before turning to fire at the second, Pirro said. Other national guard members at the scene had engaged and neutralized the suspect, she added<\/p>\n

Pirro said the suspect would be charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. However, if the national guard members did not survive, Pirro said, the charges could be increased to murder in the first degree.<\/p>\n

The FBI director, Kash Patel, told the news conference the agency is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. Law enforcement agencies had executed search warrants at the suspect\u2019s home in Washington and in San Diego, California.<\/p>\n

Investigators have no information yet on a motive, but believe Lakanwal acted alone.<\/p>\n

Lakenwal was one of roughly 76,000 Afghans brought to the US through the resettlement program, many of whom worked alongside US troops and diplomats as interpreters and translators.<\/p>\n

Supporters have said candidates were extensively vetted. But the initiative has drawn intense criticism from Trump and other Republicans over what they have argued are gaps in the vetting process and the speed of admissions.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the shooting, Trump was quick to cast the blame on the Biden administration, accusing it of failing to properly vet migrants from Afghanistan. And he indicated he considered the attack justification for a broad review of asylum and green card applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country,\u201d Trump said on Wednesday. \u201cIf they can\u2019t love our country, we don\u2019t want them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leaders of several federal agencies have promised immigration reviews. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that it has stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it was expanding that directive to include a review of all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration. DHS did not clarify whether it is reviewing all asylum cases from only Afghanistan or from other countries, as well.<\/p>\n

The USCIS director, Joseph Edlow, later added he was also directing a \u201cfull-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern\u201d at Trump\u2019s request. When asked what countries were considered \u201cof concern,\u201d USCIS pointed at Trump\u2019s executive order restricted the entry to the US of nationals of 19 countries.<\/p>\n

Soon after the shooting, Trump said he would send 500 more National Guard troops to Washington DC. It\u2019s not clear where the additional troops would come from.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

With the Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sarah Beckstrom, one of the national guard troops shot in Washington DC on Wednesday, has died, Donald Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-287184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}