{"id":305089,"date":"2026-07-24T21:09:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/305089\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:09:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:09:52","slug":"hochul-criticizes-trump-after-name-of-queens-soldier-sgt-angel-rampersad-removed-from-pentagon-casualty-list-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/305089\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul criticizes Trump after name of Queens soldier Sgt. Angel Rampersad removed from Pentagon casualty list \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul has lashed out at President Donald Trump after Sgt. Angel Sarah Rampersad<\/a> \u2014 a Queens native killed during an Iranian missile strike in Jordan last week -\u2014was removed from the Pentagon\u2019s official online list of service members killed in the ongoing conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has attributed the issue to a technical problem.\n<\/p>\n

Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park<\/a>, died during an Iranian strike on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on July 17, bringing the total number of American casualties in the US-Israeli war on Iran to 18.<\/p>\n

The Queens native was one of four service members included in a Pentagon press release detailing the dignified transfer of remains on Wednesday. The press release also described the four soldiers as having been killed in the U.S. Central Command region.<\/p>\n

However, the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Casualty Analysis System currently lists<\/a> the total number of American casualties in the conflict at 14, despite initially raising that number to 18 earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

Hochul called for the names to be immediately added back to the site.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSgt. Rampersad served our nation with extraordinary courage and made the ultimate sacrifice\u2026 That is why I\u2019m outraged to see her removed from the Pentagon\u2019s official accounting of those killed in the Iran war,\u201d Hochul said in a statement. \u201cThe Trump administration does not get to revise the human cost of this war because it has become politically inconvenient. Sgt. Rampersad gave her life in service to this country. Changing a website does not rewrite the truth of her sacrifice.<\/p>\n

The New York Times, which first reported the story, cited Pentagon sources who stated that the Trump Administration had removed the four service members because their deaths had occured after the cease fire in April.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon strongly denied those reports and condemned the New York Times for what it described as \u201cFake News media manufacturing lies out of thin air.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote in a post on X that the Pentagon\u2019s Press Office had disclosed in an off-the-record call with the publication that a temporary data disruption had resulted in the exclusion of the four names. Parnell said the Press Office also informed the Times that it was working to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of that true explanation, the New York Times was already colluding with three anonymous sources to push a completely fake story,\u201d Parnell wrote on X.\n<\/p>\n

Still, Hochul demanded a \u201cfull investigation\u201d into the incident.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers and the American people deserve a full explanation. I\u2019m calling on the Pentagon to immediately restore Sgt. Rampersad\u2019s name to its official accounting of those killed in the Iran war,\u201d Hochul said.<\/p>\n

Rampersad\u2019s family, friends and neighbors remembered her as a \u201chometown hero\u201d who will \u201cnever be forgotten\u201d in a vigil<\/a> and press conference held outside her family home on 96th Street on the morning of July 23<\/a>. A larger community vigil will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 27.<\/p>\n

In front of the family home, which flew an American flag at half-staff. Rampersad\u2019s aunt Judy Rackal, who spoke on behalf of the family. She said Rampersad had always dreamed of joining the military, adding that she enlisted a few days after her 21st birthday.<\/p>\n

Rampersad was stationed in Hawaii for three years and spent another three years in Germany before re-enlisting and being transferred to Jordan.\n<\/p>\n

Earlier, she attended P.S. 108, M.S. 202, and Forest Hills High School, and then studied at Queensborough Community College and John Jay College.\n<\/p>\n

Rampersad\u2019s mother, Carol Acevedo, spoke through tears during Thursday\u2019s press conference, telling attendees that she was \u201chighly proud\u201d of her daughter.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cShe fought for this country and she died for this country,\u201d Acevedo said. \u201cI am a mother that was highly proud of her. \u200aI know she was really, really focused on what she was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul has lashed out at President Donald Trump after Sgt. Angel Sarah Rampersad \u2014 a Queens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[153,14670,426,9,24,63,29389,4658,122,124,123,114909],"class_list":["post-305089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-ozone-park","tag-pentagon","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-u-s-army-sgt-angel-sarah-rampersad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}