The FBI said the two members of the National Guard who were shot and critically injured near the White House were in their 20s.
President Donald Trump says West Virginia National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom has died from her wounds..
Two National Guard members who were shot near the White House on Wednesday were named as 20-year-old Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe.
Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, confirmed the victims’ names during a press conference on Thursday, adding that they both remain in critical condition.
The suspect accused of the shooting has been named as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who worked with the CIA before the American withdrawal in 2021, who drove from the state of Washington, some 2,600 miles, to launch the attack.
Lakanwal came to the US in 2021 through the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome programme.
The operation helped to evacuate and resettle tens of thousands of Afghans following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to officials. The initiative brought about 76,000 people to the US, including those who had worked alongside US troops and diplomats as interpreters and translators.
Before arriving in the US, the suspect worked with the American government and the CIA “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” according to the spy agency’s director, John Ractcliffe.
He did not specify what work Lakanwal did, but said the relationship “ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation” of US servicemembers from Afghanistan.
Lakanwal currently faces charges of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Ms Pirro said the charges could be upgraded: “We are praying that they survive and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree. But make no mistake, if they do not, that will certainly be the charge.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said the shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
“Numerous electronic devices”, including mobile phones, iPads and laptops, were seized and are currently being analysed.
Following the shooting on Wednesday, the Trump administration quickly ordered 500 more National Guard members to Washington.
President Donald Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who entered the US under the Biden administration, in a video message released on Wednesday.
“If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them,” he said, adding that the shooting was “a crime against our entire nation.”
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