Trump says National Guard member dies after shooting, as ambush becomes political flashpoint
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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Thursday (Nov 27) that a National Guard member had died after being shot in an ambush by an Afghan national near the White House, an attack that drew accusations from his administration of Biden-era immigration vetting failures and prompted a sweeping review of asylum cases.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds and her fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was "fighting for his life", Trump said, as investigators conducted what officials said was a terrorism investigation after Wednesday's shooting.
The FBI searched multiple properties in a widening probe, including a home in Washington state linked to the suspect, who officials said was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan before coming to the US in 2021 under a resettlement program.
Agents seized numerous electronic devices from the residence of the suspect, identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, including cellphones, laptops, and iPads, and interviewed his relatives, FBI Director Kash Patel told a news conference.
US Attorney for Washington, DC, Jeanine Pirro said the suspect drove cross-country and then ambushed the Guard members while they were patrolling near the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
"I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation that the terrorist attack yesterday in our nation's capital, in which a savage monster gunned down two service members in the West Virginia National Guard, who were deployed as part of the DC Task Force," Trump said in a Thanksgiving call for US military service members.
Casting some blame on his White House predecessor, Joe Biden, Trump described the alleged gunman as "an Afghan national flown here by the previous administration, such a bad administration".
He said the suspect's "atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country".
Armed with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, the gunman shot one member who fell and then shot again before firing multiple times at the second member. The gunman was wounded in an exchange of fire with Guard members before he was arrested. He was in hospital under heavy guard on Thursday, and Trump said he was in serious condition.
"My baby girl has passed to glory,” Gary Beckstrom, father of the National Guard member who died, wrote on social media, adding that his family was grappling with a "horrible tragedy".
The alleged assailant, who lived in Washington state with his wife and five children, appeared to have acted alone, said Jeff Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.
SUSPECT WORKED WITH US FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News the US government planned to bring terrorism charges against the gunman and seek a sentence of life in prison "at a minimum". Following the death of the National Guard member, she suggested she would seek the death penalty.
At the press conference, Patel described the shootings as a "heinous act of terrorism", but neither he nor Pirro offered a possible motive.
Pirro and Patel were quick to point the finger at the Biden administration for policies they said allowed the Afghan immigrant into the US, but they offered no evidence to support their assertions.
The alleged gunman was granted asylum this year under Trump, according to a US government file on him seen by Reuters.
Still, this case may give Trump, who has made cracking down on both legal and illegal immigration a centrepiece of his presidency, an opening to argue that even legal pathways like asylum pose security risks for Americans.
Less than 24 hours after the shooting, Trump officials began ordering widespread reviews of immigration policies.
The Trump administration was launching a review of all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration as well as Green Cards issued to citizens of 19 countries, Department of Homeland Security officials said.
That followed an announcement, just hours after the shooting, by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services of an immediate and indefinite suspension of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals.
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