WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has ordered flags at the White House to be flown at half-staff on Thursday to honor Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old Army National Guard specialist from West Virginia who was killed in a daylight shooting near the White House. It is not yet clear whether other federal buildings will lower their flags in her memory.
Beckstrom was one of two National Guard members shot in the attack on Nov. 26. She succumbed to her injuries at the hospital on Thanksgiving Day, while the other Guardsman, 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe remains in critical condition. Police took 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal into custody. Lakanwal, an Afghan national who previously worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War, faces one count of first-degree murder and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. He pled not guilty during a remote court appearance from the hospital, where he remains detained due to injuries sustained during his capture.
Trump labeled the incident a “terrorist attack” and criticized the Biden administration’s handling of Afghan immigrants who worked with U.S. forces during the Afghanistan War. The president reiterated his plans to pause migration from poorer nations and expel millions of immigrants from the U.S. Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, announced on X that asylum decisions will be paused “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”