West Virginia’s governor said Monday that a National Guard member hospitalized in critical condition after a fellow Guard member was shot and killed near the White House is recovering.
Andrew Wolf, 24, a member of the West Virginia Air National Guard, is showing signs of improvement, including responding to a nurse’s request for a thumbs up, Staff Sergeant Patrick Morrissey said at a news conference.
“They also said he was wiggling his toes,” he said. “So we take that as a positive sign.”
Mr. Wolfe was hospitalized in critical condition following Wednesday’s attack, and Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of the West Virginia Army National Guard. President Donald Trump said the next day that Wolf was “fighting for his life.”
Morrissey said Monday that Wolf, of Martinsburg, was in serious condition, but cautioned against using his latest information as a final medical evaluation. “I’m not a doctor,” he said.
Rahmanullah Rakanwal, 29, has been charged in connection with the deadly attack near the White House. Lakhanwar, an Afghan national who worked in support of US troops in Afghanistan, immigrated to the US in 2021 under President Joe Biden and was granted asylum during the Trump administration’s second term.
The injured Lakhanwal remains hospitalized, officials said. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., said last week that he would be charged with first-degree murder.
Following the attack, the White House announced it would halt all asylum decisions and suspend the issuance of visas for people traveling on Afghan passports.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the shooting “appears to have been aimed at these security guards.” Both men were among the first to be deployed to the District in August under President Trump’s aggressive crime-fighting plan that federalized the D.C. police force.
After the shooting, the Trump administration ordered 500 more National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., but Morrissey said West Virginia had not requested them this time, but the roughly 170 remaining in the city were volunteering.
He called Wolf’s family “wonderful people” and asked the public to pray for their son.
“My mother was such a positive force,” he said. “She has called on people across the country to pray for her son, and her prayers are working.”
