National guard member wounded in DC attack is ‘slowly healing’, says West Virginia governor | US military

A West Virginia National Guard soldier injured in a shooting that killed a colleague in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 26 is “slowly recovering,” according to West Virginia’s governor.

Andrew Wolfe, 24, was shot along with West Virginia national guard soldier Sarah Beckstrom, 20, while they were patrolling the US capital as part of the Trump administration’s push to send military personnel to the city’s streets. Beckstrom died from his injuries the day after Wolfe was shot while he was hospitalized in critical condition.

West Virginia governor Patrick Morrisey, who deployed the state’s national guard to Washington, D.C., on Friday said in a post on his website that Wolfe was making a slow recovery after being shot in the head.

“His family reports that the wound on his head is slowly healing and he is starting to ‘look more like himself,'” the governor said. expression He said this about Wolfe. “Overall, the family expects Andy to remain in acute care for another 2-3 weeks but is optimistic about his progress.”

Wolfe joined the West Virginia national guard in 2019 and has since earned numerous accolades. He was assigned to Washington, D.C., in August after the Trump administration declared what it declared a “crime emergency” there, even though the city had reported a 30-year low in violent crime.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the suspect in the deadly double shooting, has been officially arrested. charged He was arrested Tuesday on a number of charges, including first-degree murder. Lakanwal is from Afghanistan and entered the United States after the US military withdrew from the country in 2021 when the Taliban returned to power.

Lakanwal was working with the CIA within an Afghan counterterrorism group called “Unit Zero.” The unit was involved in secret and dangerous missions to capture or assassinate suspected terrorists. Afghan assault forces, called Zero Units, accused of human rights violations.

In the days after the shooting attributed to Lakanwal, the Trump administration announced a series of restrictive immigration policies. The White House initially announced that it would halt all asylum decisions and processes for Afghan citizens and accused the previous Biden administration of allowing Lakanwal to enter the country.

Lakanwal was granted asylum in April, during Donald Trump’s second presidency.

Later, the administration announced that it would pause immigration applications for people from 19 different countries, including Afghanistan. 19 countries included in Trump declaration this June.

Morrisey has it. subjected to criticism by his state’s Democratic lawmakers for deploying their national guard to Washington, D.C. Troops and other federal officials reported relatively little crime in the city and were instead assigned tasks such as picking up trash.

Democratic lawmaker Mike Pushkin of West Virginia told National Public Radio that Wolfe and Beckstrom, who have been in the state’s National Guard since 2023, would not have been harmed “if the president had not deployed the National Guard in this strange form of political theater.”

After Wolfe and Beckstrom were attacked, another national guard soldier shot Lakanwal. Lakanwal made his first appearance in court regarding the charges against him via a video shot from his hospital bed.

Federal authorities have said they expect to file more charges against Lakanwal. U.S. attorney Pam Bondi said she was considering seeking the death penalty against him. The next hearing date has been tentatively set for January 14.