Nadine Yousif
One of the two members of the National Guard who were shot in Washington DC on Wednesday has died, US President Donald Trump said.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, succumbed to her injuries, while the second National Guard member, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, “is fighting for his life”, Trump said on Thursday evening.
Both were shot at close range near Farragut Square in downtown DC just after 14:00 EST (19:00 GMT) on Wednesday. Police have arrested one suspect in the shooting, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old from Afghanistan.
The attack has prompted a range of announcements from the Trump administration aimed at curbing migration from Afghanistan and a number of other countries.
The two soldiers who were attacked had been deployed to the American capital as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on what it sees as rampant crime in several US cities.
Trump confirmed Ms Beckstrom’s death while on a Thanksgiving call with US service members.
“Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we’re talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person… She’s just passed away. She’s no longer with us,” he said.
Trump later spoke to her parents, a White House official told BBC’s US partner CBS News.
The US president previously said the attack underlined a major national security threat.
In the wake of the incident, officials said they would suspend processing all immigration requests from Afghans, and to re-examine green cards issued to individuals who migrated to the US from 19 countries.
Trump has also vowed to “permanently pause migration” to the US from all “third world countries”, without providing details of his plan or naming which countries might be affected.
Victim had volunteered to work at Thanksgiving
Ms Beckstrom had enlisted on 26 June 2023 and was assigned to the 863rd Military Police Company, 111th Engineer Brigade of the West Virginia Army National Guard.
She had volunteered to work in Washington over the US holiday Thanksgiving, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News following the shooting.
Jim Justice, a Republican senator from West Virginia, said he was “absolutely devastated” to learn of Ms Beckstrom’s passing.
“Our prayers are with her family, friends, and fellow guardsmen during an incredibly difficult Thanksgiving Day,” he said in a statement.
“We are also lifting up Andrew Wolfe in prayer as he continues his journey to recovery.”
Both soldiers had been on a high-visibility patrol near the corner of 17th and I streets, an area where many office workers mill around at lunchtime.
More than 2,000 troops have been guarding the nation’s capital since August, when the president began deploying troops to cities to tackle what he called “out of control” crime.
Ms Beckstrom and Mr Wolfe were among those who were deployed in August, the West Virginia National Guard confirmed to BBC News.
National Guard troops are a reservist force that can be activated to serve as military troops, but have limited power as they cannot enforce the law or make arrests.
The location of the shooting, just blocks from the White House, meant a number of law enforcement officials arrived quickly at the scene to treat the two victims and apprehend the gunman.
The suspect was shot four times, law enforcement sources told CBS News.
Suspect once worked alongside CIA in Afghanistan
Officials said Mr Lakanwal came to the US from Afghanistan in 2021.
He will be charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed, as well as possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro told a news conference on Thursday morning, before news of Ms Beckstrom’s death.
“We are praying that they survive and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree,” Pirro had said. “But make no mistake, if they do not, that will certainly be the charge: murder in the first degree.”
Bondi told Fox News on Thursday that her office will seek the death penalty against the suspect, calling him a “monster who should not have been in our country”.
Mr Lakanwal reportedly came to the US under a programme named Operation Allies Welcome, which offered special immigration protections to Afghans in the wake of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
He had helped guard US forces at Kabul airport in 2021 as thousands scrambled to escape Afghanistan as the Taliban swept back to power, a former military commander who served alongside him told the BBC’s Afghan Service.
The suspect had been recruited to Unit 03 of the Kandahar Strike Force. His unit was known locally as Scorpion Forces, operating initially under the CIA but eventually for the Afghan intelligence department known as the National Directorate of Security.
Mr Lakanwal was a GPS tracker specialist, the former commander told the BBC, describing him as a “sporty and jolly character”.
His whole unit was moved from Kandahar to Kabul five days before the Taliban entered the capital. They continued to protect the airport for another six days, before they too were airlifted out to the US.
At a press conference on Thursday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed Mr Lakanwal’s connection to US forces, saying the suspect “had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces”, before moving to the US.
Mr Lakanwal applied for asylum in 2024, and his application had been granted earlier this year, an official told CBS.
On Thursday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services chief Joseph Edlow said the president had directed him to conduct “a full scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern”.
When asked by the BBC which countries were on the list, the agency pointed to a June proclamation by the White House that included Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Somalia and Venezuela.
Additional reporting by Hafizullah Maroof and Sayed Abdullah Nizami of the BBC Afghan Service
