Transcription
One of the two National Guard members shot in Washington DC on Wednesday has now died. President Donald Trump announced the death of 20-year-old Sarah Beckram. The charges against the 29-year-old Afghan man suspected in the shooting are now expected to be upgraded.
I must unfortunately tell you that just seconds before I went on right now, I heard that Sarah Beckrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we're talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person, started service in June of 2023. Outstanding in every way. She's just passed away. She's no longer with us. She's looking down at us right now. Her parents are with her. This just happened. She was savagely attacked. She's dead. Not with us. Incredible person. Outstanding in every single way in every department. That's horrible.
As you know, the other young man is fighting for his life. He's in very bad shape. He's fighting for his life and hopefully we'll get better news with respect to him and the monster that did this is also in serious condition.
All right, let's bring in Rosalyn Jordan now who joins us live from Washington DC. And Rosyn, President Trump only just announcing the death of that soldier. What more can you tell us?
Well, the uh soldier uh Sarah Bergstrom of West Virginia who was just 20 years old joined the National Guard in that state just after uh finishing high school 2 years ago. She was on patrol with a fellow member of the West Virginia National Guard on Wednesday afternoon, midafter afternoon, when authorities say that she and her uh partner were ambushed by a man who is now said to be the uh prime suspect, a 29-year-old Afghan uh citizen who received asylum in the United States back in April in part because he had worked alongside the US military working for a a an intelligence unit that was uh apparently uh working in collaboration with the CIA because of his military service. This man was allowed to move to the United States and had been living in Washington State outside Seattle with his wife and five children. Police don't have a motive for the uh attack on Wednesday afternoon. But earlier on Thursday, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, Janine Piro, said that if one or both of the National Guard members uh passed away after the shooting, that she would be pursuing a first-degree murder charge, which in the federal courts can carry the death penalty.
Okay, Rosen, that's not the only development, is it, in this investigation, because the attack uh has also seen the Trump administration now announce Afghanistan as one of 19 countries of concern. The government tonight announcing a sweeping review of green card holders from those places.
Well, the president back in June issued an executive order declaring that Afghanistan was one of 19 countries of concern because of uh problems with the way that those countries vetted their citizens, not just uh for uh passports to come to the United States, but also did not do a good enough job in the Trump administration's view of preventing people who might be problematic either from a criminal standpoint point or from a public welfare standpoint from immigrating to the United States. And so this list was uh d was drafted uh nearly six months ago. What is now happening is that the uh agency that is in charge of citizenship and immigration services will now be using that list to do a much closer uh analysis of the uh paperwork that was done for those persons who have come to the United States uh especially those uh coming from Afghanistan. But they're also separately now going to be looking at any green cards, any permanent residency cards given to people from those countries on uh from those countries to see if perhaps people might have uh been uh given permission to reside and to work in the United States and really should have been denied that uh privilege as the administration calls it.
Rosalyn Jordan uh with the update from Washington DC. Thank you very much.