A Virginia National Guard member has died and another is in critical condition after a gunman opened fire near the White House the day before Thanksgiving, in an attack that has added fuel to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
US Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, had been in the service for just over two years when she was shot and killed in the nation’s capital, the president said in a call to service members on Thanksgiving. He described the young soldier who volunteered to work over the holiday as “outstanding in every way.”
The suspect in the shooting has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national who officials say came to the US in 2021 under a program implemented by the Biden administration following the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan. The suspect was also wounded and taken to the hospital, authorities said.
Lakanwal had previously worked in Afghanistan with the CIA, according to the agency’s director, John Ratcliffe. He was granted asylum in April by the Trump administration, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN.
Trump called the shooting an “act of terror” in remarks from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, Wednesday.
The president called for a reexamination of every person from Afghanistan who came to the US under President Joe Biden, and criticized what he claimed were millions of “unknown and unvetted foreigners” admitted to the country under his predecessor.
Here’s what we know about the shooting, the suspect and the response:
Suspect granted asylum earlier this year after coming to the US from Afghanistan in 2021
Lakanwal arrived in the US on September 8, 2021, as part of a program called Operation Allies Welcome, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday night.
Lakanwal was granted asylum earlier this year under the Trump administration after applying in 2024, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN.
In August 2021, Biden launched the Operation Allies Welcome program to protect vulnerable Afghans following the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s return to power.
More than 190,000 Afghans have been resettled in the US under both Operation Allies Welcome and the program that replaced it, known as Enduring Welcome, according to the State Department.
Most Afghans who arrived under Operation Allies Welcome were allowed to enter and remain in the US for two years without permanent immigration status. More than 40% of those admitted to the program were eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) because they took great risks to help the US, or were related to someone who did, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
In a statement to Fox News Wednesday, Ratcliffe said, “The Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar.”
A senior US official told CNN Lakanwal began working with the CIA around 2011 and, at the time, the agency would have conducted extensive vetting through a variety of databases – including the National Counterterrorism Center database – to determine if Lakanwal had any known ties to terrorist groups.
Afghans admitted to the US under Operation Allies Welcome underwent extensive vetting, despite claims to the contrary by Trump and his allies at the time. The official told CNN Lakanwal would have been among those vetted again in 2021 before being allowed to enter the US under the program.
“In terms of vetting, nothing came up,” the senior US official said. “He was clean on all checks.”
He would have undergone continuous, annual vetting, especially in the wake of the failed terror plot disrupted before the election last year in Oklahoma, which involved an Afghan evacuee, the official says.
The vetting of people overseas by US intelligence agencies is different than what domestic agencies are expected to do once individuals arrive and are seeking asylum, a second official noted.
National Guard members identified as officials vow prosecution
A small memorial now marks the spot where two West Virginia National Guard members were shot Wednesday in downtown Washington, DC.
Beckstrom was remembered by Trump as a “highly respected, young, magnificent person.”
She began her military service in June 2023 and was part of the 111th Engineer Brigade within the West Virginia Army National Guard, the president said.
National Guard member Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition, US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said at a news conference Thursday. His father, Jason Wolfe, called him a “fighter.”
Jason Wolfe told CNN’s Gabe Cohen he asks everyone to “keep my son in your prayers.”
“He’s a great person,” he said.
Beckstrom’s father previously told the New York Times his daughter suffered a “mortal wound” and is not likely to recover.
Beckstrom was from Summersville, West Virginia, and Wolfe is from Martinsburg, West Virginia. Both have been deployed to the district under the DC Safe and Beautiful Mission “since the beginning of the mission in August of this year,” according to a statement from the West Virginia National Guard.
“Unfortunately, today, as most families join together to give thanks for the blessings that have been bestowed upon them, two families have been shattered and destroyed and have been torn apart as a result of the actions of one man,” Pirro said.
The Guard members “answered the call, they took the charge, they volunteered, they put their lives on the line for people they don’t even know,” she said.
Pirro previously said Lakanwal will be charged with assault with intent to kill and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. He faces 15 years in prison under the assault with the intent to kill charge, she said.
However, she added, those charges could change depending on the well-being and recovery of the injured Guard members.
At a separate news conference Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the administration will do “everything in our power” to seek the death penalty following the shooting.
She added at a minimum, the alleged suspect could face “life in prison with terrorism charges.”
Guard members ambushed in shocking attack, officials say
Since the shooting, Pirro said, investigators across multiple agencies have worked around the clock to learn more about the alleged gunman.
She said Lakanwal resided in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and children.
“What we know about him is that he drove his vehicle across country from the state of Washington with the intended target of coming to our nation’s capital,” Pirro said.
“A lone gunman opened fire without provocation, ambush-style, armed with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said the motive for the attack remains under investigation, but the shooting is being treated as an act of terrorism.
Wednesday’s attack took place around 2:15 p.m. in Farragut Square, a tourist-heavy area near a busy transit center and the White House.
The two National Guard members were performing “high visibility patrols” when the suspect approached, raised a gun and started shooting at them, Executive Assistant Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department Jeffery Carroll said at a news conference following the attack.
Carroll said after “some back and forth,” fellow Guard members were “able to subdue” the suspect and take him into custody.
DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to provide first aid, Carroll said. The suspect and the wounded National Guard members were transported to area hospitals, he added.
On Thursday, Bondi told Fox News that Beckstrom had volunteered to work over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“She volunteered, as did many of those guardsmen and women, so other people could be home with their families, yet now their families are in hospital rooms with them while they are fighting for their lives,” she said.
An eyewitness named Patrick told CNN he was about to enter a nearby bar around 2:10 p.m. when he heard loud bangs and saw people running.
“They were thick gunshots. I mean, I couldn’t really tell if it was a rifle or a pistol, but some type of big caliber,” said Patrick, who declined to give his last name.
Once he stopped hearing gunshots, he walked to the intersection and saw two National Guard members and a third person on the ground. Shattered glass from the bus stop covered the area. He said people were performing CPR on one of the Guard members, while the other had blood near their head.
Following the shooting, Trump asked for 500 more National Guard troops to be deployed to the nation’s capital, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Wednesday.
That request came despite an ongoing legal battle over whether the original National Guard deployment was legal. On Wednesday, the Trump administration also asked a federal appeals court for an emergency stay of last week’s order from a federal judge to remove the National Guard from Washington, DC.
Trump ramps up anti-immigration rhetoric
As a multi-agency investigation into the shooting begins, President Trump and his administration have begun ramping up the anti-immigration rhetoric.
In a video address from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump blamed the Biden administration for bringing the alleged shooter to the US and argued the attack “underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation.”
Trump lamented what he described as “20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners” who entered the US during his predecessor’s administration, casting it “a risk to our very survival.”
The president described the suspect as a “foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hell hole on earth.” In the same remarks, he also took aim at Somali immigrants living in Minnesota, claiming they are “ripping off our country and ripping apart that once-great state,” casting Somalia as a country that has “no laws, no water, no military, no nothing.”
Trump vowed to “re-examine every single alien who has entered our country under Biden,” a process that has already begun, as CNN reported earlier this week.
Shortly after Trump’s address, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it had stopped processing immigration cases related to Afghan immigrants “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”
“The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission,” the agency said in a statement on X.
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