{"id":319273,"date":"2025-11-28T20:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T20:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/319273\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T20:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T20:42:12","slug":"national-guard-member-killed-in-d-c-shooting-remembered-for-heart-of-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/319273\/","title":{"rendered":"National Guard member killed in D.C. shooting remembered for ‘heart of gold’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Beckstrom, the West Virginia National Guard member who died of her injuries after a shooting near the White House this week, took a keen interest in criminal justice and dreamed of one day becoming an FBI agent, according to a former boyfriend.<\/p>\n

Beckstrom, 20, believed her service with the military police would \u201cget her foot in the door for a career in the FBI and help her in the long run,\u201d according to the ex-boyfriend, Adam Carr, who said the two remained on good terms after breaking up last month following six years together.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump announced Beckstrom\u2019s death<\/a> during a Thanksgiving Day phone call with U.S. troops. He described her as a \u201chighly respected, young, magnificent person\u201d and added: \u201cShe\u2019s looking down at us right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other National Guard member wounded in Wednesday\u2019s shooting has been identified as U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24. Trump said Wolfe was in \u201cvery bad shape\u201d and \u201cfighting for his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspected gunman, an Afghan national identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal<\/a>, faces a first-degree murder charge, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Friday. Officials previously said he faced three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and one count of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Lakanwal worked with U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan, according to the CIA.<\/p>\n

Carr, 20, who started dating Beckstrom in high school, remembered her as \u201cone of the most forgiving people\u201d he had ever met. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t even have to know you and she\u2019ll do anything for you,\u201d Carr said in an interview with NBC News on Friday.<\/p>\n

Beckstrom loved exploring the outdoors, Carr said. In photos shared with NBC News, Beckstrom can be seen hunting deer, roasting marshmallows over a backyard fire and posing happily with Carr\u2019s brother\u2019s dog, a Dutch shepherd named Major.<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah Beckstrom.Courtesy Adam Carr<\/p>\n

Beckstrom enlisted in the West Virginia National Guard on June 26, 2023. She was assigned to 863rd Military Police Company and deployed to D.C. in August, when Trump ordered troops to the capital as part of a federal operation known as the \u201cD.C. Safe and Beautiful Mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr said Beckstrom initially did not want to go to the capital because she was concerned about feeling lonely away from home. \u201cShe hated it. She cried about it,\u201d he said. But with time, she came to enjoy the deployment and bonded with other troops. Her military colleagues nicknamed her \u201cBecky,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In her spare time, he said, she visited monuments and museums, taking pictures and soaking up D.C.\u2019s history. She was especially interested in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, he said.<\/p>\n

She had the option to return to West Virginia sooner, he added, but she chose to remain in the district.<\/p>\n

Beckstrom\u2019s service was praised by federal and state officials after Trump announced she had died of her wounds.<\/p>\n

\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 West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said in a post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Col. Larry Doane, the commander of the joint task force in the D.C. National Guard, hailed Beckstrom as a \u201chero\u201d and mourned the \u201cdevastating loss\u201d for the Guard.<\/p>\n

Gary Beckstrom, her father, posted a brief message on Facebook, saying in part: \u201cMy baby girl has passed to glory.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a Thanksgiving Day phone interview with The New York Times<\/a>, Beckstrom\u2019s father said he was holding her hand. \u201cShe has a mortal wound. It\u2019s not going to be a recovery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Beckstrom\u2019s death sent waves of grief through Summersville, a West Virginia city of just under 3,500 that sits along U.S. Route 19. Carr\u2019s mother, Eva, said Beckstrom was \u201clike a daughter\u201d to her and spent a lot of time at her home.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was the sweetest girl. She was hard not to love. You loved her the minute you met her,\u201d Eva Carr told NBC News, fighting back tears.<\/p>\n

In the months leading up to the D.C. deployment, Beckstrom worked for a community health center that serves people with mental illness and substance abuse disorders, Eva Carr said. <\/p>\n

Seneca Health Services CEO Marcie Vaughan confirmed in an interview that Beckstrom started working for the center in January. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that she chose both to enlist in the National Guard and to work at a community behavioral health center is testament to her passion for helping others,\u201d Vaughan said.<\/p>\n

Beckstrom\u2019s empathy was one of her defining traits, Eva Carr said, adding that the young woman had \u201ca heart of gold\u201d and treated strangers with respect. The senselessness of her death has left loved ones shaken.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve cried myself to sleep last few nights,\u201d Eva Carr said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sarah Beckstrom, the West Virginia National Guard member who died of her injuries after a shooting near the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-319273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}