SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
West Virginia held a moment of silence this afternoon for the National Guard members who were shot in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. One of the two has died. A second remains in critical condition. And here to give us the latest on the shooting and the investigation is NPR's Vanessa Romo. Hi, Vanessa.
VANESSA ROMO, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
DETROW: What do we know about the Guard member who died yesterday?
ROMO: Her name is Sarah Beckstrom. She was an Army specialist with the National Guard, and she joined the service just a couple of years ago in 2023. She was just 20 years old and was from Summersville, West Virginia. Obviously, her family is devastated by the tragedy. And in a post on Facebook, Beckstrom's father called her his baby girl and said that she had passed to glory.
Also, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey said in a statement earlier today that Beckstrom had made, quote, "the ultimate sacrifice in service to her state and the nation." He added that both Beckstrom and Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, the second victim who remains in critical condition, had actually stepped forward and volunteered for the mission in D.C.
DETROW: What is the latest on the investigation? What do we know about the suspect at this point?
ROMO: His name is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, and he's an Afghan national. And he's himself hospitalized after the shooting. He is 29 years old, and he was just 5 when the war in Afghanistan started. He immigrated to the U.S. in 2021, when the U.S. withdrew from the country and the Taliban toppled the government there.
According to a nonprofit that works with Afghan refugees, Lakanwal actually served in an elite counterterrorism unit that was called Zero Unit that was operated by the CIA. And Human Rights Watch reports that these specialized units, which were recruited and trained by the CIA, were used to carry out extremely violent clandestine missions. And CIA director John Ratcliffe confirmed that it's because of the work that Lakanwal did fighting against the Taliban for the U.S. that he and his family were allowed to flee here.
And U.S. officials say he's been living with his wife and children in Bellingham, Washington. After about four years, he was granted asylum just this past April. And as far as the investigation goes, that is ongoing. Officials are looking for leads in the U.S. and abroad. And at the moment, there's no clear motive in terms of what prompted him to drive nearly 3,000 miles across the country and launch the ambush.
DETROW: And this attack is playing out in our politics already. What is the Trump administration saying and doing in response?
ROMO: So the administration has already halted the processing of any immigration request from Afghan nationals. Plus, the head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joe Edlow, announced a, quote, "full scale, rigorous reexamination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern." In a statement, USCIS referred to 19 different countries that the administration already declared required extra vetting. A proclamation earlier this year restricted travel from immigrants and nonimmigrants to the U.S.
And we should also note that the Trump administration halted refugee resettlement from Afghanistan on the very first day of his second term. And late last night, Trump wrote on Truth Social that, quote, "refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America." And then he went on to blame immigrants for crime and using federal benefits. And he called out legal green card holders for getting support. Trump also said that he's going to, quote, "permanently pause migration from all third world countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover." But it's not clear if this goes further than what has already been announced, or if additional policy changes are coming.
DETROW: That is NPR's Vanessa Romo. Thank you so much for the latest.
ROMO: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
