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OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
2:40 PM – Thursday, December 4, 2025
President Donald Trump has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of 20-year-old U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, the National Guardsman who was fatally shot near the White House last week.
Thursday’s proclamation reads, “As a mark of respect for the memory of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, West Virginia Army National Guard, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, December 4, 2025.”
Beckstrom was just 20 years old when she passed away in late November from her injuries, a day after a 29-year-old Afghan gunman purportedly opened fire on two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the accused gunman, entered the U.S. in 2021 as part of the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome initiative, which resettled Afghans in the country after former President Joe Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal. His asylum application was approved in April this year.
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Following the shooting, another nearby Guardsman, without a firearm, tackled the suspect and stabbed him before more Guardsmen chimed in to shoot him down. was shot by law enforcement during the incident and transported to a hospital for treatment.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro warned that if either of the two wounded Guardsmen passed, Lakanwal would be charged with first-degree murder. He is also charged with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
On Tuesday, Lakanwal pleaded not guilty to all charges, appearing before a judge in D.C. Superior Court virtually from his hospital bed.
The other wounded National Guard member, Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, still remains in critical condition.
Following the tragedy, President Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack” and resolved to pause migration from 19 countries considered to pose high risks to national security, due to their weak vetting processes. Afghanistan is included on the list.
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