Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old West Virginia National Guard soldier who was wounded in a shooting near the White House, has died of her injuries, U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Thursday.
Beckstrom was shot on Wednesday while on patrol alongside fellow Guardsman Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, in what Trump termed “a terrorist attack.”
During his Thanksgiving call to U.S. troops, Trump said that he had just learned that Beckstrom had died, while Wolfe was “fighting for his life” in the hospital.
“She’s just passed away,” Trump said. “She’s no longer with us. She’s looking down at us right now.”
He described Beckstrom as an “incredible person, outstanding in every single way,” and suggested that the shooter was mentally unstable after moving from Afghanistan to the United States.
The suspect, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national who had been granted asylum in the U.S., is in custody. With Beckstrom’s death, U.S. officials said he could now face capital charges, including the possibility of the death penalty.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar expressed solidarity with the United States following the attack. “My thoughts are with the families of the two brave National Guardsmen,” Sa’ar wrote on X. “We stand in solidarity with the United States, the American people and the president of the United States.”
Authorities are continuing to investigate the circumstances of the “ambush-style” attack, which has heightened security concerns in the U.S. capital.
