The two members of the National Guard who were shot near the White House on Wednesday were sworn in less than a day before the attack, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro revealed.
Pirro said the victims, identified as 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, both from West Virginia, remain in critical condition after undergoing emergency surgery.
“Both Sarah and Andrew were sworn in less than 24 hours before they were shot on the street in Washington,” the U.S. attorney told reporters at a joint press conference with FBI Director Kash Patel and Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser.
The service members were seriously injured when 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly gunned them down in broad daylight with a revolver in an “ambush-style” and “targeted” attack, Pirro said.
Lakanwal, who entered the United States in September 2021 under former President Joe Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome program following the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, is accused of driving across the country from Washington state to carry out the shooting.
Beckstrom, who was shot in the chest and head, had volunteered to work that day “so other people could be home with their families,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News Thursday morning.
“Yet now, their families are in hospital rooms with them while they are fighting for their lives,” she solemnly said.
Pirro added at the press conference that the victims have received the “finest medical care.”
“Their families are with them now,” she said. “They are critical — I think you understand the meaning of that. It’s not clear how this is going to end up. But let me be perfectly clear about how it will end up in this office — if one of them is to pass, and God forbid that happens, this is a murder one. Period. End of the story.”
She went on to urge the public to pray for their survival and recovery.
“We are praying on a day like today when families come together in America and they hold hands around the Thanksgiving table. I beg you, I beseech you…to pray for these two young people that they survive.”
Lakanwal, who is being investigated as a terrorist, is also currently hospitalized under “heavy guard” after being injured as other guardsmen stopped the attack.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
