PALM BEACH, Florida--U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a National Guard member had died after being shot in an ambush by an Afghan national near the White House, an attack he blamed on Biden-era immigration vetting failures as he ordered 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 probe after Wednesday's shooting.
The FBI searched multiple properties in a widening investigation, 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 U.S. in 2021 under a resettlement programme. 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.
U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. 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 U.S. military service members.
Casting blame on the administration of his White House predecessor, Joe Biden, Trump said the alleged gunman, who he described as having gone "cuckoo," was among thousands of Afghans who came in unvetted as the U.S. carried out a chaotic withdrawal in 2021.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.Asked whether he was planning to deport the suspect's wife and five children who live in Washington state, Trump said, "We're looking at the whole situation with family ... tragic situation."
The programme under which the suspect entered the U.S., which allowed in more than 70,000 Afghan nationals, according to a congressional report, was designed with vetting procedures, including by U.S. counter-terrorism and intelligence agencies. But the large-scale and rushed nature of the evacuations led critics to say the background checks were inefficient.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News the U.S. 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.
Speaking to reporters, Trump echoed Pirro and Patel's accusations that the Biden administration was to blame for policies they said allowed the Afghan immigrant into the U.S., but they offered no evidence to support their assertions. The alleged gunman was granted asylum this year under Trump, according to a U.S. government file on him seen by Reuters.
Trump did not dispute that, but told reporters: "When it comes to asylum, when they're flown in, it's very hard to get them out. No matter how you want to do it, it's very hard to get them out, but we're going to be getting them all out now."
