A brazen, close-range shooting last week of two young National Guard members doing routine patrols outside of a Metro station in Washington has left communities in West Virginia in mourning and many around the country searching for answers.
Spec. Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old who joined the Guard two years ago after graduating from high school in Webster County, West Virginia, died on Thanksgiving in a hospital bed with her parents by her side. Her colleague and friend, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, is still hospitalized, President Donald Trump said Sunday.
“Andrew is fighting for his life” and “he has a chance to make it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “His parents are unbelievably great people, highly religious people, and they’re praying, and they want everybody to pray for Andrew.”
Here are the latest updates in the case.
Who is the suspect?
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, was arrested immediately after the shooting, just a block away from the White House. He is a 29-year-old father of five children who came to the United States after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021.
Lakanwal had worked for a CIA-organized counterterrorism outfit in Afghanistan, part of one of the groups called “Zero Units,” which took part in raids.
Lakanwal came to the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome (OAW), a Biden-era program that helped resettle Afghan nationals after the U.S. military withdrawal, and had been living in a small apartment in Bellingham, Washington.
Through the OAW program, Lakanwal received “many benefits” including housing, an official with knowledge of the situation told The Washington Post on Sunday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Lakanwal has now been charged with murder and could face the death penalty, a top federal prosecutor said Friday. Lakanwal also faces three counts of possessing a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. Shortly after the attack, other Guard members shot the suspect, who was taken to a hospital and placed under heavy guard.
The Trump administration granted Lakanwal asylum earlier this year because he was “locked into being in the country” through OAW, the official with knowledge of the situation said.
What do we know about the victims?
Beckstrom joined the Guard when she was 18, a month after graduating high school in 2023, and was rising through its junior ranks.
On Saturday evening, a crowd gathered for a candlelight vigil in Beckstrom’s former high school gym. The 20-year-old “carried herself with quiet strength, a contagious smile, and a positive energy that lifted people around her,” her former principal, Jarrod Hankins, said.
At first, she hated the idea of being deployed in D.C. and was nervous about leaving her family, her ex-boyfriend said, but she believed in Trump’s mission of reducing crime in D.C. and wanted to be a part of it.
Taking the podium at her vigil Saturday, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Beckstrom was known for her big heart and spirit. He described her and Wolfe as courageous. He said that the two were friends who spoke fondly of each other and spent a lot of time together.
Wolfe grew up about four hours away, in Martinsburg. He came from a family dedicated to service, Morrisey said, and became a Guard member in early 2019.
Have authorities identified a motive?
DHS Secretary Kristi L. Noem told ABC News’s “This Week” that officials had not yet identified what drove Lakanwal, who drove across the country from Washington state to the District before allegedly carrying out the attack. Noem added that the investigation is still ongoing and that she believes the FBI and the Justice Department will “reveal all of the sources of motivation.”
The secretary contended that Lakanwal “could have been radicalized in his home community and in his home state.”
Lakanwal had been dealing with severe mental health issues and had been deteriorating over the years, the Associated Press reported Sunday, citing emails written by a community member who worked with Lakanwal and other Afghan refugees in Washington state.
The official with knowledge of the situation said federal investigators are looking into issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, but they do not believe that his mental health was the primary cause of the attack.
How has the Trump administration responded?
Soon after the attack, Trump ordered 500 more Guard members to join the roughly 2,000 deployed in the District. Some people have criticized the buildupin U.S. cities, saying it makes the troops easy targets. The troops will be paired with D.C. police, at least temporarily, The Post reported last week.
After a video call with U.S. service members on Thursday, Trump told reporters that he did not know Lakanwal’s motive but said the suspect “went cuckoo. I mean, he went nuts.”
Trump also asserted, without evidence, that Lakanwal and other Afghan refugees were “unvetted” by the Biden administration. People with direct knowledge of the case have contradicted that, saying Lakanwal underwent thorough vetting by counterterrorism authorities before entering the United States.
Trump on Thursday sidestepped a reporter’s question about why his administration granted Lakanwal asylum in April, saying, “When it comes to asylum, when they’re flown in, it’s very hard to get them out.”
The White House on Friday haltedall decisions related to asylum claims and paused visa issuances for Afghan nationals, a day after Trump posted an anti-immigration screed vowing to “permanently pause” migration from nations he described as “Third World Countries.”
Deporting Afghans who have been granted asylum “is very hard,” the president said on Thursday. “But we’re going to be getting them all out now.”
What have lawmakers said about changes to policy on Afghan evacuees?
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) told NBC News’s Kristen Welker that he found Noem’s latest comments “disturbing.”
“I take that as a message that they don’t want brown people coming to the United States,” Kelly said Sunday. “We are a country that has always welcomed individuals that are struggling, that are fleeing famine and violence.”
Kelly, however, agreed with Noem’s assessment that the vetting process needs to be changed.
“It sounds like they did not do enough vetting before they gave him his asylum claim,” he said. “She talked about changing the vetting process. I think that’s a good idea.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) called the administration’s posture a “desperate” effort “to blame everybody else in the world and not accept any accountability.”
He said that although the suspect’s motives are unknown, pausing the processing of visas and green cards for all Afghans “is outrageous.”
“That is collective punishment,” he said. “These are individuals who worked side by side with America in the fight against the Taliban. And if they were sent back now, the Taliban may likely kill them.”
What has been the response of Afghans in the U. S.?
Members of the Afghan community in the U.S., as well as their advocates, have expressed deep concern over the generalizations Trump and his allies have made about Afghan evacuees in the wake of the shooting.
The Afghan Association of Central Virginia said in a statement on Friday that many in the community came to the U.S. “seeking refuge, dignity, and the opportunity to rebuild their lives in peace. Our own experiences with conflict and hardship shape our firm commitment to nonviolence, compassion, and the protection of human life.”
Shawn VanDiver, a veteran and president of #AfghanEvac, a group that supports Afghan evacuees, said Trump is “trying to distract from this by blaming Afghans for this horrific act. I wish our government treated national security seriously and not like a game show.”
How has West Virginia responded?
The governor — who deployedmembers of the West Virginia National Guard to D.C. in August — has appeared on several news programs as well as remembrances and vigils.
On Saturday, Morrisey spoke to Fox News about the “heinous act” and said what happened to the Guard members is “unconscionable.” The state issued a proclamation to honor the two “brave individuals,” as West Virginia “cares very deeply about its guard.”
“There is a proud tradition of West Virginians who step up for military service, so when something like this happens, it’s really a gut punch to the communities,” Morrisey said.
When asked about what he would like to see happen regarding the suspected shooter and how he got into the country, Morrisey said “first and foremost, we need justice to be served.” The governor blamed the Biden administration for “loopholes” in the vetting process. Pointing to his time as attorney general, Morrisey said he was regularly involved in lawsuits “against the Biden border disorder.”
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