WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 21: U.S. President Donald Trump visits the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operations Facility on August 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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President Donald Trump stated on Thursday {that a} Nationwide Guard member had died after being shot in an ambush by an Afghan nationwide close to the White Home, an assault that drew accusations from his administration of Biden-era immigration vetting failures and prompted a sweeping evaluation of asylum instances.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds and her fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was “combating for his life,” Trump stated, as investigators performed what officers stated was a terrorism investigation after Wednesday’s capturing.
The FBI searched a number of properties in a widening probe, together with a house in Washington state linked to the suspect, who officers stated was a part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan earlier than coming to the U.S. in 2021 below a resettlement program.
Brokers seized quite a few digital gadgets from the residence of the suspect, recognized as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, together with cellphones, laptops, and iPads, and interviewed his kin, FBI Director Kash Patel instructed a information convention.
U.S. Lawyer for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro stated the suspect drove cross-country after which ambushed the Guard members whereas they had been patrolling close to the White Home on Wednesday afternoon.
“I need to categorical the anguish and the horror of our total nation that the terrorist assault yesterday in our nation’s capital, wherein a savage monster gunned down two service members within the West Virginia Nationwide Guard, who had been deployed as a part of the DC Activity Drive,” Trump stated in a Thanksgiving name for U.S. navy service members.
Trump stated the suspect’s “atrocity reminds us that now we have no higher nationwide safety precedence than guaranteeing that now we have full management over the those that enter and stay in our nation.”
Armed with a robust revolver, a .357 Magnum, the gunman shot one member who fell after which shot once more earlier than firing a number of instances on the second member. The gunman was wounded in an change of fireplace with Guard members earlier than he was arrested. He was in hospital below heavy guard on Thursday, and Trump stated he was in severe situation.
The alleged assailant, who lived in Washington state together with his spouse and 5 kids, appeared to have acted alone, stated Jeff Carroll, govt assistant chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Division.
