President Donald Trump stated he’s very pleased with the 2 National Guard members shot in last week’s attack in Washington, DC, calling 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom “an incredible person” and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe a fighter.
Wolfe, a US Air Force workers sergeant, and Beckstrom, a US Army specialist assigned to the 863rd Military Police Company, 111th Engineer Brigade, had been deployed to Washington, DC, as a part of the Trump administration’s efforts to scale back crime.
Speaking throughout a cupboard assembly on the White House Tuesday, Trump stated he reached out to their households “very soon after this horrible event took place.”
“I want to pay my deepest respects to those two incredible people from the National Guard in West Virginia,” the president stated, including he has spoken with Beckstrom’s household since she died from her accidents Thursday.
“Somebody said, ‘How are they doing?’ I said, ‘the word is devastated,’” Trump stated. “The rest of their lives, they’re going to be devastated.”
Wolfe, Trump stated, remains to be “fighting for his life.” He additionally praised Wolfe’s mom for remaining “so positive” regardless of the circumstances and for insisting that her son will survive.
“He’s fighting very hard,” Trump stated of Wolfe. “It would be amazing if he lives; it would be amazing – a miracle actually – but we’re very proud of those two people.”
During the cupboard assembly, Attorney General Pam Bondi stated she visited Wolfe in the hospital yesterday and requested for continued prayers for his restoration.
“He’s got a long road ahead of him, but he is a miracle,” she stated.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey stated at a Monday information convention that Wolfe remains in serious situation but has proven “positive” signs of restoration.
The governor stated his workplace was instructed that when a nurse requested Wolfe to present a thumbs up if he might hear, “he did respond.”
“And we were told that he also wiggled his toes, so we take that as a positive sign,” Morrisey added.
Morrisey remembered Beckstrom as “an amazing woman who lifted up people.”
“She is someone who is going to be remembered for a very, very long time, and she had her life tragically cut short,” the governor added.
The suspect in the taking pictures has been recognized as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan nationwide who labored with the CIA for over a decade in Afghanistan earlier than the US navy withdrew from the nation.
Lankanwal got here to the United States in 2021 as a part of Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration-era program that evacuated and resettled tens of 1000’s of weak Afghans — lots of whom labored alongside US troops and diplomats — after the American withdrawal. He utilized for asylum in 2024, and it was granted earlier this 12 months beneath the Trump administration.
The suspect faces at the least one first-degree homicide cost, the US legal professional for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, instructed Fox News on Friday, including, “There are certainly many more charges to come.”
Lakanwal was wounded through the taking pictures and brought to the hospital, authorities stated. His situation is unknown, but he appeared in courtroom just about from his hospital mattress on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty.
West Virginia National Guard stay in DC
At Monday’s information convention, Morrisey emphasised that guard members volunteered to be deployed to the nation’s capital and stated 170 members of the state’s National Guard stay in Washington, DC, to help native legislation enforcement.
He stated his workplace does “not have a specific date in mind” for when these troops will return to West Virginia.
Morrisey declined to immediately deal with the supply of conflicting statements his workplace launched shortly after the taking pictures concerning the situation of the 2 injured guard members. Initially, a press release from Morrisey’s workplace indicated that each guard members had been killed, but it was later corrected.
“I could tell you that the process is that we try to get as much information as we can, accurate information, from the most credible sources,” Morrisey stated. “In this case, that information was incorrect and then within 20 minutes we changed it.”
Shortly after the taking pictures, the Trump administration filed an emergency motion to maintain the National Guard in Washington, DC, after a choose dominated that Trump’s deployment of the guard was illegal.
City officers had argued in a lawsuit in opposition to the troops’ deployment, saying it undermined the town’s autonomy and was pointless.
Trump additionally requested for 500 more National Guard troops to be deployed to the nation’s capital.