Gary Beckstrom, the father of 20-year-old West Virginia National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, wrote on Facebook Thursday: “My baby girl has passed to glory. If I don’t talk to you don’t be offend [sic] this has been a horrible tragedy.”
The young woman soldier had been in critical condition with gunshot wounds since the attack as doctors tried to save her life.
Still hospitalized and in critical condition is 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, who with Beckstrom was was shot multiple times while on duty near the Farragut West Metro station.
Authorities have identified their alleged attacker as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakamal, an Afghan national who came to the United States under a program to accept people who had allied themselves with the United States during its war on terrorism in that country.
To carry out the attack, for which he used a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver, Lakamal reportedly drove all the way from Bellingham, Washington, about 90 miles north of Seattle, where he lived with his wife and children.
On Wednesday, before Beckstrom passed away, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tore into the program that brought the alleged attacker to the United States.
Posting on X, she wrote, “The suspect who shot our brave National Guardsmen is an Afghan national who was one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration.
Noem also called out alarmists who have been using such pejoratives as “fascism” and “authoritarianism” to criticize federal efforts to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens as well as using a National Guard presence to reduce crime.
“These men and women of the National Guard are mothers, fathers, sisters, daughters, children of God, carrying out the same basic public safety and immigration laws enshrined in law for decades,” she wrote.
She continued, “The politicians and media who continue to vilify our men and women in uniform need to take a long hard look in the mirror.”
President Donald Trump referred to the alleged shooter as a “monster” during his remarks on Thursday.
Earlier this week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe also criticized the Biden administration’s relocation program for Afghan nationals.
“The individual—and so many others—should have never been allowed to come here,” Ratcliffe told Fox News Digital. “Our citizens and service members deserve far better than to endure the ongoing fallout from the Biden administration’s catastrophic failures.”
As Breitbart News has reported, hours after the shooting the Trump administration announced an immediate suspension of the processing of immigration requests from Afghan nationals.
President Donald Trump has also ordered a widespread review of asylum cases approved under former President Joe Biden’s administration and green cards issued to citizens of 19 “high risk” countries.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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