National Guard shooting victim Sarah Backstrom’s father pays heartbreaking tribute: Latest updates
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has announced that National Guard shooting suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal will face a first-degree murder charge after Sarah Beckstrom, one of the soldiers wounded in an “ambush” outside a Metro station in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, died of her injuries.
President Donald Trump announced Beckstrom’s death at a Thanksgiving press conference Thursday evening, calling her a “highly respected, young, magnificent person” and “outstanding in every way.”
Her family joined her at her hospital bedside. “My baby girl has passed to glory. If I don’t talk to you don’t be offend this has been a horrible tragedy,” her father, Gary Beckstrom, later posted on social media.
Andrew Wolfe, the other guardsman shot in the incident, is still “fighting for his life” and “in very bad shape,” Trump said Thursday night. He remains in critical condition.
Lakanwal, the suspected shooter, is a 29-year-old Afghan national who entered the U.S. in September 2021. He was living in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five children and working as a delivery driver, according to officials.
The president has escalated his anti-immigration agenda in the wake of the shooting, vowing to “permanently” freeze immigration from “third world” countries as authorities “reexamine” certain green card holders.
