DC National Guard shooting suspect now charged with first-degree murder

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced the charges had been upgraded after Sarah Beckstrom died of her injuries following the gun attack near a Metro station in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, was previously charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.

Read more: Trump slams reporter in heated exchange over Afghan shooter

Read more: Trump orders reviews of all Afghan immigration cases after DC shooting

Beckstrom’s death was announced by Donald Trump at a Thanksgiving press conference on Thursday evening, with the president calling her a “highly respected, young, magnificent person”.

Andrew Wolfe, the second victim in the shooting, is "in very bad shape" and is "fighting for his life" after undergoing surgery yesterday, Trump said.

Lakanwal, a former special forces commander from Afghanistan who worked with the CIA, came to the US in 2021 under a Biden-era resettlement programme for Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover.

He applied for asylum in 2024 and had it granted in April 2025 by the Trump administration.

The suspect was living in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five children and working as a delivery driver, officials said.

Mrs Beckstrom, of Summersville, West Virginia, had volunteered to work in DC over Thanksgiving, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

She first began her service on June 26, 2023, and was assigned to the 863rd Military Police Company, 111th Engineer Brigade, West Virginia Army National Guard.

Both victims had only been sworn in to guard the US streets less than 24 hours before the attack.

A motive for the shooting has not been publicly identified, nor why the attacker decided to drive the country to ambush the Guardsmen.

But Pirro said there are "many charges to come" for Lakanwal beyond the upgraded murder charge.

President Trump says he was "looking at" deporting Lakanwal's family, telling reporters on Thursday: "Well, we’re looking at that right now. We’re looking at the whole situation with family."

On Wednesday, the US leader called for the government to review every Afghan immigrant who entered the US during the Biden administration.

Soon after Trump made this statement, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it had stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely.

The agency's director Joseph Edlow said it is now also taking additional steps to screen people from 19 "high-risk" countries "to the maximum degree possible".

The President also wants to "permanently pause migration" from poorer nations and deport millions of immigrants from the US by removing their legal status.

Refugee charities are now worried for those who had fled dangerous situations to come to America, fearing they will face a backlash after the shooting.