Two members of the West Virginia National Guard remain in critical condition after an Afghan national shot them near the White House Wednesday afternoon.
CBS News reported Thursday afternoon that Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, have both undergone surgery and remain hospitalized. According to POLITICO, the shooter was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who reportedly began firing without provocation.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said that Lakanwal has been charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, the outlet reported. He currently faces 15 years under the charge of assault with the intent to kill, but the charges may be changed if Beckstrom or Wolfe’s injuries prove fatal.
“We are praying that they survive and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree,” Pirro said, according to POLICITO. “But make no mistake, if they do not, that will certainly be the charge: murder in the first degree.”
In a message posted to social media Nov. 26, President Donald Trump called the attack a “heinous assault” that was “a crime against our entire nation.”
“The hearts of all Americans tonight are with those two members of the West Virginia national guard and their families,” he said. “The love of our entire country is pouring out for them and we are lifting them up in our prayers.”
Trump also promised to make America “totally safe again,” and added that “we will bring the perpetrator of this barbaric attack to swift and certain justice.”
According to POLICITO, Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that the Justice Department “will do everything in our power to seek the death penalty against that monster who should not have been in our country.”
The outlet also reported that CIA Director John Ratcliffe has confirmed that Lakanwal had previous ties to the U.S. and the CIA.
“In the wake of the disastrous Biden Withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden Administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the U.S. Government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation,” Ratcliffe said, according to POLITICO. “This individual — and so many others — should have never been allowed to come here. Our citizens and servicemembers deserve far better than to endure the ongoing fallout from the Biden Administration’s catastrophic failures. God bless our brave troops.”
CBS News reported that the shooting has prompted the Trump administration to initiate a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination” of all green cards issued to immigrants from “a country of concern,” which include Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Venezuela, and several other countries.
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