The Pentagon will award the Purple Heart to the two West Virginia National Guard members shot in an ambush-style attack just blocks from the White House — one posthumously. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20 years old, was killed. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, took a bullet to the head and survived.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made the announcement Friday during a reenlistment ceremony at the Washington Monument. He didn't mince words.
"One lost, one recovered. Both soon-to-be Purple Heart recipients because they were attacked by a radical."
Hegseth described the response as "the real-deal; it's the front lines" — and said medals would also go to those who responded to the shooting, the Military Times reported. The ceremony's location, within sight of the very streets where two Guard members were gunned down on what should have been a routine patrol the day before Thanksgiving, carried its own weight.
What happened outside the Metro station
Beckstrom and Wolfe were fired upon outside a Washington, D.C., Metro station in November. Beckstrom succumbed to her wounds on Nov. 27. Wolfe underwent surgery for the gunshot wound to his head. The National Guard has said he has made "extraordinary progress," — but the fact remains that a 24-year-old soldier nearly died serving his country in his own country's capital.
The suspected gunman, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who immigrated to the United States in 2021. Before that, he worked for more than a decade with C.I.A.-backed units in Afghanistan. He has been arraigned on nine charges, including first-degree murder and assault with intent to kill. He has pleaded not guilty.
The Department of Justice has said it will seek the death penalty.
A 20-year-old soldier shouldn't die on American soil
The Purple Heart is presented to service members wounded or killed by enemy action. That this standard now applies to a domestic shooting — blocks from the seat of American government — tells you everything about the state of the nation's capital.
Sarah Beckstrom was twenty. She deployed to Washington, not Kabul. She wore the uniform in a city that should have been safe enough for her to walk without a rifle, let alone without fear of being ambushed. She didn't come home from D.C.
President Trump called the attack an "act of terror" and pledged to send 500 additional troops to Washington as part of his crackdown on crime in the capital, which he has described as "out of control." Those troops have been deployed. U.S. officials have indicated the Guard is expected to remain through the end of the year.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey formally requested the medals in December and hailed the Pentagon's decision in a post on X:
"Their actions while protecting our nation's capital meet the highest standards for this recognition. This announcement brings long-overdue honor to their service, offers meaning and reassurance to their families, and stands as a solemn reminder that West Virginia will never forget those who sacrifice in defense of others."
The question no one in Washington wants to answer
Lakanwal entered the United States in 2021, during the chaotic final chapter of the Afghanistan withdrawal. He had spent over a decade embedded with C.I.A.-backed units. That biography raises obvious questions about the vetting pipeline that brought him here and the systems that were supposed to track him afterward.
None of those systems prevented a 20-year-old soldier from being murdered on American pavement.
Washington has spent years treating the capital's crime problem as a talking point rather than an emergency. National Guard members were sent to help restore order. One of them came home in a flag-draped coffin. Another is recovering from brain surgery. The city that asked for their help couldn't keep them safe.
Hegseth was right to call this the front lines. That's not rhetoric — it's a description of what happened. Two soldiers on patrol were ambushed and shot. One died. The other nearly did. The medals they're receiving are the same ones awarded in combat zones overseas.
The difference is that this combat zone has a Metro station and a view of the Washington Monument.
