WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a National Guard member had died after being shot in an ambush by an Afghan national near the White House, an attack that drew accusations from his administration of Biden-era immigration vetting failures and prompted a sweeping review of asylum cases.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds and her fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was “fighting for his life,” Trump said, as investigators conducted what officials said was a terrorism investigation after Wednesday’s shooting.
The FBI searched multiple properties in a widening probe, including a home in Washington state linked to the suspect, who officials said was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan before coming to the US in 2021 under a resettlement programme.
Agents seized numerous electronic devices from the residence of the suspect, identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, including mobile phones, laptops, and iPads, and interviewed his relatives, FBI Director Kash Patel told a news conference.
US Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro said the suspect drove cross-country and then ambushed the Guard members while they were patrolling near the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
Trump expresses outrage at attack
“I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation that the terrorist attack yesterday in our nation’s capital, in which a savage monster gunned down two service members in the West Virginia National Guard, who were deployed as part of the DC Task Force,” Trump said in a Thanksgiving call for US military service members.
Trump said the suspect’s “atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country.”
Armed with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, the gunman shot one member who fell and then shot again before firing multiple times at the second member. The gunman was wounded in an exchange of fire with Guard members before he was arrested. He was in hospital under heavy guard on Thursday, and Trump said he was in serious condition.
Alleged assailant acted alone
The alleged assailant, who lived in Washington state with his wife and five children, appeared to have acted alone, said Jeff Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.