The National Guard member who was shot in a daytime attack that killed a colleague in D.C. last week is “slowly healing,” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey has said.
Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was hospitalized after a gunman opened fire on him and his colleague Spec. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, as they patrolled near the White House on Nov. 26. The following day, President Donald Trump said that Beckstrom had died of her injuries.
Wolfe’s “parents report that his head wound is slowly healing and that he’s beginning to ‘look more like himself,’” Morrisey said in an update on Wolfe’s condition published on his website Friday. “Overall, the family expects that Andy will be in acute care for another 2-3 weeks but have been optimistic about his progress.”
Wolfe, who had earned multiple awards since joining the West Virginia National Guard in 2019, and Beckstrom were among more than 2,000 National Guard members deployed to D.C. after President Donald Trump’s announcement of a “crime emergency” in the city in August. Following the attack, Trump ordered a further 500 troops to the District.
The day after, Wolfe’s mother Melody Wolfe said he had been in surgery and that the first two weeks would be a “waiting game.”
Earlier this week, the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was formally charged with first-degree murder, assault with intent to kill while armed, and two counts of possessing a firearm during a crime of violence in the incident, which unfolded on the afternoon before Thanksgiving. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has said more charges are forthcoming.
Prosecutors allege that Lakanwal, an Afghan national, drove across the country to D.C., armed with a .357-caliber revolver. He studied the National Guard contingent for about one minute before opening fire at Wolfe and Beckstrom outside the Farragut West Metro station, prosecutors said.
Lakanwal pleaded not guilty through a defense attorney at the hearing Tuesday. He spoke through an interpreter to give brief responses and at one point said he was in pain.
Lakanwal was once an elite counterterrorism soldier in a CIA-backed unit that worked alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He was among the roughly 76,000 Afghans who entered the United States under the Biden-era Operation Allies Welcome program following the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, but appeared to struggle to adapt after his arrival.
Official documents show Lakanwal’s age to be 29, but a former U.S. intelligence officer told The Washington Post that was probably inaccurate. He had lived with his wife and five children in an apartment in Bellingham, Washington state, for about a year, neighbors told The Post.
Trump announced a range of immigration restrictions in the aftermath of the shooting, including halting visas for Afghan nationals and later pausing immigration applications for 19 countries on his administration’s travel ban list.
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