The female West Virginia National Guard member critically wounded in a cowardly ambush by an Afhgan refugee Wednesday had volunteered to work that day so others could spend Thanksgiving with their families.
The brave guardsman was identified as 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said at a Thursday press conference.
She was shot in the chest and head, authorities previously reported.
“She volunteered to be there on Thanksgiving — working today — she volunteers, as did many of those guardsmen and women so other people could be home with their families,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News early Thursday, before Beckstrom was identified as the second victim.
“Yet now, their families are in hospital rooms with them while they are fighting for their lives.”
The other wounded guardsman was previously identified as 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe.
“Both Sarah and Andrew were sworn in less than 24 hours before they were shot on the street in Washington,” Pirro revealed.
Both have undergone surgery and are in critical condition.
They sustained the life-threatening injuries when Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, allegedly opened fire near the Farragut West Metro Station in Northwest DC in what’s being probed as a possible terrorist attack.
Follow the latest on the National Guard shooting in Washington, DC:
- Second National Guard member wounded in suspected terror shooting ID’d as Sarah Beckstrom
- Andrew Wolfe ID’d as one of two National Guard members shot in DC
- Alleged DC National Guardsmen shooter was in Afghan army, served alongside US troops: report
- Trump blasts ‘disastrous’ Biden over refugee program that allowed alleged Afghan DC guardsmen shooter into US
“They received the finest medical care. Their families are with them now. They are critical — I think you understand the meaning of that. It’s not clear how this is going to end up. But let me be perfectly clear about how it will end up in this office — if one of them is to pass, and God forbid that happens, this is a murder one. Period. End of the story,” said Pirro.
“We are praying on a day like today when families come together in America and they hold hands around the Thanksgiving table. I beg you, I beseech you to play, to pray for these two young people that they survive.”
Bondi noted that the gunman’s charges would be determined by Beckstrom and Wolfe’s prognosis, but that authorities were working at “lightspeed” to put together the facts of the case.
Lakanwal allegedly ambushed the two National Guard members near the White House, lying in wait before opening fire in a brazen attack.
He was shot by return fire from other guard members.
His motive is not yet clear, but authorities are probing it as a targeted terrorist attack.
Lakanwal was a member of the Afghan Army stationed in Kandahar where he supported US Special Forces in the region, a relative told NBC News.
He applied for asylum in December 2024 and was approved on April 23 of this year — and had no known criminal history, a Trump admin official told Reuters.
