National Guard members shot in D.C. attack

Two National Guards were shot in Washington, D.C. with one receiving fatal wounds

Photo courtesy of Spirit of Eagle/Wikimedia Commons

Two members of the United States National Guard were shot in downtown Washington, D.C, just blocks away from the White House, on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 as reported by BBC. The suspect was apprehended and taken into custody following the attack. One of the guards received fatal injuries and passed the following day, while the other guardsman remained in critical condition as of the evening of Nov. 27. 

The guard who tragically died was Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old National Guard member. As detailed by BBC, United States Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters that “Ms Beckstrom had volunteered to work in the nation’s capitol over the Thanksgiving holiday.” At a vigil held for her, her former high school principal said she “carried herself with quiet strength, a contagious smile and a positive energy that lifted people around her,” adding that “she was sweet, caring and always willing to help others.” In the days after the attack, President Trump said that he spoke to her parents who were ‘devastated’ and has invited her family to the White House, as per PBS. 

The Hill reported that the perpetrator of the shooting was named as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwall, a man from Afghanistan. NBC News detailed that, before moving to the United States, Lakanwall worked as part of a National Strike Unit backed by the United States CIA to cooperate with U.S. military and find highly dangerous Taliban officials in Afghanistan. He moved to the U.S. in 2021 under a program implemented by the former Biden Administration, which allowed Afghan refugees who assisted the U.S. military against its war with Afghanistan settle in the United States, as per The Hill. 

As a result of the shooting, some Republicans are calling for increased immigration limitations. One Republican, Senator Tommy Tuberville from Alabama called for “all ISLAM immigrants” to be deported in a post on X. The Hill reported that Attorney General Bondi said that prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Lakanwall. NPR called the attack “unprovoked,” but noted that one “refugee settlement volunteer… said they worried about Lakanwall’s wellbeing and feared he was suffering a mental health crisis.”

Through a presidential executive order on Aug. 11, 2025 titled “Restoring Law and Order in the District of Columbia,” President Trump ordered National Guardsmen to Washington, D.C. “to address the epidemic of crime in our Nation’s capitol.”

Many American citizens, and especially Washington, D.C. residents, were initially upset and frustrated with the deployment of the National Guard in August. Some officials suggested the order by President Trump as being targeted against the city for being under Democratic rule or for being a majority Black city. The current mayor of D.C. is Democratic politician Muriel Bowser. 

Other democratically governed cities across the country, such as Chicago, Memphis, and Los Angeles also saw National Guard deployments by the president this past summer, as per Democracy Docket, a digital news source focused on voting rights, elections, and democracy in the U.S. According to Al Jazeera News, after the National Guard was deployed to Washington, D.C. in August, crowds of protesters gathered. One protestor, Radha Tanner, said that she felt the president’s deployment of the National Guard was part of an agenda to portray democratic cities as “unsafe and riddled with crime.”

As further reported by Al Jazeera, “the city’s superlative as the first Black majority city in the US, and its current status as a Black plurality city, has further added a racial dynamic to” the situation. Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton said the president’s order was an “assault on the first Black majority city” and the “ultimate affront to justice and civil rights.” The city’s mayor called the deployment “unsettling.” 

Following the attack, President Trump announced on Thanksgiving Day that he would “permanently pause migration [of citizens to America] from all third world countries.” On  Friday, the U.S. State Department announced that they had stopped issuing visas to any person traveling with an Afghanistan passport, as per The Guardian. The Guardian’s reporting went on to note that President Trump had not provided any plans on how he would enact the pause or any explanations for possible legal challenges the order could face.