The suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington DC is facing a first-degree murder charge.

It follows the death of one of the soldiers, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom.

The other soldier, Andrew Wolfe, 24, was taken to hospital in critical condition after the incident on Wednesday afternoon. On Friday, West Virginia’s governor said Wolfe remained in a “very critical condition”.

US attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office said the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, now faces charges including 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.

Pirro said there are “many charges to come” beyond the upgraded murder charge and that Lakanwal had driven across the country to launch an “ambush-style” attack with a revolver.

She said her heart went out to the family of Beckstrom, who volunteered to serve and “ended up being shot ambush-style on the cold streets of Washington DC by an individual who will now be charged with murder in the first degree”.

President Donald Trump called Beckstrom, part of the West Virginia guard, a “highly respected” and “magnificent person”.

Investigators are continuing to execute warrants in the state of Washington, where the suspect lived, and other parts of the country, Pirro said.

However, she declined to discuss the suspect’s motive, saying officials have been working around the clock on that question.

Officials said Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration programme that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.

People who knew him say he served in a CIA-backed Afghan Army unit before immigrating to the US.

Kristina Widman, who claims to be Lakanwal’s former landlord, said he had been living in Bellingham, close to Seattle, with his wife and five children.

The #AfghanEvac charity said Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration.

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On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration.

The director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said in a statement that the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the maximum degree possible”.

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The President has since said he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the US by revoking their legal status.

Organisations that work with refugees are worried that those who fled dangerous situations to start again in America will face a backlash after the shooting.

The US will review green cards issued to the citizens of 19 countries after two members of the National Guard were shot by a suspected Afghan gunman in Washington DC.

Immigration from Afghanistan has also been suspended indefinitely, the White House said, following the double shooting on Wednesday.

Joseph Edlow, director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), revealed the order from President Trump.

He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”

Asked which countries would be affected, USCIS pointed to a presidential proclamation from June listing 19 countries.

The proclamation sought to “fully restrict” arrivals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

It also “partially” restricted arrivals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been named as the suspected gunman in this week’s shooting and has been detained.

He worked as part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan, and reportedly came to the States under a programme meant to help Afghans who’d risked their lives assisting US troops in Afghanistan.

He’s thought to have driven thousands of miles to the capital from his home in Washington state, where he lives with his wife and five children.

Attorney general Pam Bondi called him “a lone gunman” who “opened fire without provocation, ambush style”.

President Trump described him as a “savage monster”.

He was granted asylum in April this year, according to NBC News.

One of his victims, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, died of her wounds, while the other, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in a critical condition.

Lakanwal reportedly came to the US under Operation Allies Welcome, a programme enacted by former President Joe Biden after he pulled American forces out of Afghanistan in 2021.

Edlow explictly targeted the previous president as he announced the new green card regime.

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He wrote on X: “The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies.”

Speaking after the attack, President Trump was even more caustic.

He said: “The suspect in custody is a foreigner, who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth.

“He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021 on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.

“His status was extended under legislation signed by President Biden – a disastrous president, the worst in the history of our country.”

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He continued: “This attack underscores the greatest national security threat facing our nation.

“The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don’t even want to know about.

“No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival.”

One of the National Guard members shot in Washington DC on Wednesday has died from her injuries, Donald Trump has said.

The president said 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom had “just passed away” and called her a “highly respected” and “magnificent person”.

The other person who was shot, Andrew Wolfe, 24, is in a critical condition. The pair were ambushed while patrolling near the White House.

Ms Beckstrom’s father had earlier told The New York Times she was unlikely to survive and he was “holding her hand”.

The suspected gunman, Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is in a serious condition, Mr Trump told reporters.

He drove thousands of miles from his home in Washington state to carry out the attack with a powerful Magnum revolver, according to US attorney Jeanine Pirro.

Lakanwal is said to have worked in a CIA-backed Afghan army unit before coming to the US in 2021 under a resettlement programme designed to protect people from Taliban reprisals.

His asylum application was passed this year.

Investigators are treating it as terrorism and searched multiple properties on Thursday, including one linked to Lankanwal in Washington state, where the FBI seized electronic devices and interviewed relatives.

Lakanwal has a wife and five children family, but Washington DC police said he appeared to have acted alone.

Ms Beckstrom, part of the West Virginia National Guard, had been deployed as part of the president’s plan to clamp down on what he says are high levels of crime and illegal immigration in some US cities.

Mr Trump ordered 500 extra troops into the capital after the shooting, joining about 2,200 already there.

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