WASHINGTON (AP) — On Thursday, President Trump shared that one of the two West Virginia National Guard members shot by an Afghan national near the White House has died. Referring to the shooter, who had previously collaborated with the CIA in Afghanistan, Trump labeled him a “savage monster.”
During a Thanksgiving call with U.S. troops, Trump announced he had just been informed of the death of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, aged 20, while Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remained in critical condition.
“She’s just passed away,” Trump noted solemnly. “She’s no longer with us. She’s looking down at us right now. Her parents are beside her.”
The president praised Beckstrom, describing her as “an incredible person, outstanding in every single way.”
Trump used this moment to label the incident a “terrorist attack,” criticizing the Biden administration for allowing Afghans who had supported U.S. forces during the Afghanistan War into the United States. The president has assigned National Guard members to assist with his administration’s large-scale deportation initiatives.
The individual accused of the shooting, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, entered the U.S. in 2021 and had been residing in Bellingham, Washington. He had worked with a CIA-supported Afghan Army unit before moving from Afghanistan, as per two unnamed sources who discussed the matter with the Associated Press due to its sensitive nature, along with #AfghanEvac, an organization aiding Afghans who supported the U.S. during the prolonged conflict.
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The suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., has been identified as 29-year-old Afghan citizen Rahmanullah Lakanwal. (Getty)
Trump suggested that the accused shooter was mentally unstable after the war and his departure from Afghanistan.
“He went cuckoo. I mean, he went nuts,” the president said. “It happens too often with these people.”
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said “it’s too soon” to provide a motive for Wednesday afternoon’s brazen act of violence, which occurred just blocks from the White House. The presence of troops in the nation’s capital and other cities around the country has become a political flashpoint.
Pirro said the suspect launched an “ambush-style” attack with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver.
Lakanwal had been facing charges of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, but Pirro previously said those charges would be upgraded if either of the victims died.
“We are praying that they survive and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree,” she said earlier on Thursday. “But make no mistake, if they do not, that will certainly be the charge.”
