Man charged in National Guard shooting pleads not guilty from hospital bed

A makeshift memorial for Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe was created near the site of the attack in Washington (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

A man accused of shooting two National Guard troops near the White House has pleaded not guilty to murder and assault charges during his first appearance before a judge by video link from a hospital bed.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who was also shot, faces charges stemming from the November 26 shooting that killed Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and wounded Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24. His lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf during a brief court hearing in Washington, DC.

Ms Beckstrom and Mr Wolfe were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard for US president Donald Trump’s law-enforcement surge in the nation’s capital, which has flooded the city with federal agents and troops since August.

Tributes were left near a photograph of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom at a makeshift memorial near the site of the shooting in Washington (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

Authorities were investigating a possible motive for what they described as an ambush-style attack.

A prosecutor, Ariel Dean, described the shooting as a “shocking crime” and alleged that Lakanwal had “traversed the city to some extent” before approaching the troops and shooting them.

The magistrate judge ordered him to be detained, citing the “sheer terror that resulted” from Lakanwal’s alleged actions.

The rare shooting of National Guard members on American soil came amid court fights and a broader public policy debate about the Trump administration’s use of the military to combat what officials cast as an out-of-control crime problem.

Members of the National Guard and an officer from the Washington Metropolitan Police Department on foot patrols in Washington (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration programme that resettled Afghans after the US withdrawal from the country, officials said. Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement.

Mr Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack” and criticised the Biden administration for enabling Afghans who worked with US forces during the Afghanistan war to enter the US.

The president has said he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and expel millions of immigrants from the country.