Murder charge added in National Guard attack

Suspect faces new count after one of the two soldiers shot in Washington dies.

- BY COLLIN BINKLEY AND BEN FINLEY

NATIONAL Guard patrols in Washington on Thursday. President Trump has ordered 500 more troops there.

(ALEX WROBLEWSKI Bloomberg)

Charges against the man accused of shooting two National Guard members have been upgraded to first-degree murder after one of the soldiers died, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia announced Friday, while investigators continue to seek a motive and the U.S. government announced a halt to all asylum decisions.

Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, were hospitalized in critical condition after the Wednesday shooting blocks from the White House. President Trump announced Thursday evening that Beckstrom had died.

U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro’s office said the charges against Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan war, now include one count of first-degree murder, three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.

Beckstrom and Wolfe were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard as part of Trump's mission in the nation’s capital that federalized the D.C. police force, which he says is a crime-fighting campaign.

The president has deployed National Guard members to many Democratic-run cities, including Los Angeles, to assist with his mass deportation efforts.

Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack” and criticized the Biden administration for allowing Afghans who worked with U.S. forces during the Afghanistan war to enter the U.S. The president has said he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and expel millions of immigrants from the country.