(WASHINGTON, D.C.) Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old National Guard soldier from Summersville, West Virginia, has died after a daytime shooting near a busy downtown Metro stop that President Donald Trump called a targeted attack and a possible act of terrorism. She died on November 27, 2025, one day after she was shot near the Farragut West Metro station, steps from the crowded Farragut Square Metro Station in central Washington, D.C.
Trump announced her death on Thursday evening, saying Beckstrom was a “highly respected, young, magnificent person” who was “outstanding in every way.” He confirmed that the second soldier shot in the attack, Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, remained in grave condition.
“The other young man is fighting for his life. He’s in very bad shape. He’s fighting for his life,” Trump said.
Beckstrom and Wolfe, both members of the National Guard deployed to patrol the capital, were ambushed around 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, November 26, near Farragut West, a busy spot for commuters and office workers. Prosecutors say the suspected gunman, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, drove across the country from Washington state to carry out what officials describe as a targeted attack on uniformed Guard members.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Lakanwal opened fire with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver without warning. According to Pirro,
“opened fire with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver without provocation, striking one guardsman who went down, then striking that guardsman again, and striking the other guardsman several times.”
Other nearby National Guard troops rushed toward the scene and helped subdue the suspect after one Guard member shot him, ending the attack within moments.
Beckstrom was taken to hospital with what doctors told her family was a wound she was unlikely to survive. Her father, Gary Beckstrom, described the final hours he spent at her bedside to a New York Times reporter while she was still alive.
“I’m holding her hand right now. She has a mortal wound. It’s not going to be a recovery,” he said.
Col. Larry Doane, commander of Joint Task Force District of Columbia, praised her service and said her loss had shaken Guard units who have been patrolling the city under a federal security push ordered by Trump.
“This is a devastating loss to our National Guard family. Spc. Sarah Beckstrom came to the District from West Virginia to make our nation’s capital safe and beautiful. She is a hero and we mourn her passing,” Doane said.
Beckstrom enlisted in the West Virginia National Guard on June 26, 2023, and served as a military police soldier with the 863rd Military Police Company. She had been sent to Washington, D.C. earlier this year as part of Trump’s federal takeover of the city and crime crackdown that began in August. That deployment put young soldiers like her on foot patrols, traffic posts, and crime hot spots, including the bustling streets around Farragut Square Metro Station, where offices, coffee shops, and government buildings sit side by side.
The suspected gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, arrived in the United States in 2021 after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. The CIA has confirmed that Lakanwal previously worked with the U.S. government in Afghanistan as part of an anti-Taliban paramilitary force. According to Department of Homeland Security officials, he was granted asylum earlier in 2025 on humanitarian grounds, a process handled by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, known as USCIS official website. Asylum and green card rules are detailed on the Asylum and green card rules are detailed on the USCIS official website, which now sits at the center of a fast-moving policy response.
FBI Director Kash Patel said federal agents are treating the case as a potential terror attack, even as they work to pin down Lakanwal’s motive. Patel called it an “ongoing investigation of terrorism.”
“ongoing investigation of terrorism.”
Officials say the motive remains unclear, and investigators have raised the possibility that Lakanwal may be suffering from paranoia, but they have not publicly shared any detailed findings about his mental state.
Federal agents have searched his home in Bellingham, Washington, and carried out interviews in San Diego as they try to trace his movements and contacts before the shooting. Investigators say Lakanwal allegedly drove cross-country from Washington state to the U.S. capital before opening fire on the two soldiers in broad daylight. Prosecutors plan to charge him with several counts, including assault with intent to harm and criminal possession of a weapon, and say those charges could change once the medical outcome for Wolfe is known.
The attack has pushed questions about who is allowed into the United States and how they are screened back to the center of the political debate. The fact that Rahmanullah Lakanwal is both an Afghan national and an asylum recipient, and that the CIA says he once fought alongside U.S. forces as part of an anti-Taliban paramilitary group, has already drawn sharp focus from immigration and security officials.
In an immediate response, the Trump administration ordered what it described as a full-scale reexamination of all green cards held by immigrants from more than a dozen “countries of concern.” USCIS Director Joe Edlow said the review would target permanent residents from those countries, though he did not publicly list all of them. The move links a single shooting in downtown Washington to a much wider policy shift, potentially affecting thousands of people who have already completed lengthy security checks to obtain permanent resident status.
Trump also ordered an additional 500 Guard troops to be deployed to D.C., adding to the forces already on the ground as part of the August crime crackdown and federal takeover of key public safety roles in the city. That order will put even more Guard uniforms on streets, Metro platforms and traffic circles near places like the Farragut Square Metro Station, where Beckstrom and Wolfe were on duty before they were shot.
For many in the National Guard, the shooting has driven home the danger of what had often been seen as routine urban patrol work. Young soldiers who signed up for part-time service now find themselves on the front line of both crime control in the capital and the political fallout that follows a deadly attack. Col. Doane’s description of Beckstrom as a hero reflected a sense inside Guard ranks that she died carrying out a mission far from her small hometown of Summersville.
💡 If discussing policy shifts after this incident, verify the exact USCIS rules on asylum and green cards from official sources and note any announced reviews or timelines before drawing conclusions.
The mention of paranoia and the lack of a clear explanation for the attack have only added to the unease. Federal investigators are now trying to piece together how a man who once worked with U.S. forces in Afghanistan ended up, according to prosecutors, driving across the continent and opening fire with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver on two American soldiers he had never met. The path that brought Rahmanullah Lakanwal from the fall of Kabul to a sidewalk near Farragut West, and from a role in an anti-Taliban paramilitary force to an “ongoing investigation of terrorism,” as Patel put it, is now under intense review.
The decision to revisit green cards for immigrants from more than a dozen countries of concern, announced by USCIS Director Joe Edlow, goes far beyond this single case. It signals a harder line on people who have already passed earlier background checks and now live in the United States as permanent residents, with jobs, families and long-term plans. While officials have not said how many green cards will be reviewed, the order raises the possibility of fresh questioning, re-screening, and, in some cases, possible moves to strip status.
At the same time, the case is likely to stir debate about the resettlement of Afghans who worked with the United States during the long war, many of whom arrived after the 2021 withdrawal on promises of safety and protection. Lakanwal’s history as a member of an anti-Taliban paramilitary force supported by the U.S. government, as confirmed by the CIA, places him in a group of Afghans who have often been portrayed by American officials as trusted partners.
In Summersville, and within the tight-knit units of the 863rd Military Police Company, those national debates are overshadowed by the loss of a young soldier who had barely two years of service behind her. Beckstrom’s enlistment on June 26, 2023, marked the start of a short military career that took her from training grounds in West Virginia to patrols in downtown Washington, D.C. Her final hours, described by her father as he held her hand in hospital, have already become part of how fellow soldiers and family members remember her sacrifice.
On the streets around the Farragut Square Metro Station, commuters and office workers have returned to their routines, but the presence of more National Guard troops and federal law enforcement agents is a visible reminder of how quickly a normal weekday can turn into a crime scene. For the Trump administration, the fallout has become both a story of a single loss — that of Spc. Sarah Beckstrom — and a reason to pull immigration and security policy into even tighter focus.
Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom died after a daytime shooting near Farragut West Metro in Washington, D.C.; Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe remains gravely wounded. Prosecutors say suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal drove from Washington state and fired a .357 revolver before Guard members subdued him. The CIA confirmed Lakanwal had worked with U.S.-backed anti-Taliban forces and received asylum in 2025. The Trump administration ordered a review of green cards from more than a dozen countries and deployed 500 additional Guard troops to the capital.
