Washington ‘Terror Attack’: Donald Trump Confirms Death Of One West Virginia National Guard Member

Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump said that one of the two West Virginia National Guard members shot by an Afghan national near the White House had died, calling the shooter who had worked with the CIA in his native country a “savage monster”.

As part of his Thanksgiving call to U.S. troops, Trump said that he had just learned that Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, had died, while Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was “fighting for his life”. “She’s just passed away,” Trump said. “She’s no longer with us. She’s looking down at us right now. Her parents are with her”.

The president called Beckstrom an “incredible person, outstanding in every single way”. Trump used the announcement to say the shooting was a “terrorist attack” as he criticized the Biden administration for enabling Afghans who worked with U.S. forces during the Afghanistan War to enter the U.S.

The president has deployed National Guard members in part to assist in his administration’s mass deportation efforts. The suspect charged with the shooting is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29.

The suspect had worked in a special CIA-backed Afghan Army unit before emigrating from Afghanistan, according to two sources who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, and #AfghanEvac, a group that helps resettle Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the two-decade war.

The rare shooting of National Guard members on American soil, on the eve of Thanksgiving, comes amid court fights and a broader public policy debate about the Trump administration’s use of the military to combat what officials cast as an out-of-control crime problem.

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