National Guardsman Recovering Following Being Shot in the Nation's Capital

A member of the Air National Guard is on the mend after he was critically injured in an ambush-style shooting last month in the US capital.

The parents of Andrew Wolfe, 24, report "his head wound is gradually improving and that he's starting to 'look more like himself,'" said the state's chief executive Patrick Morrisey.

The soldier's relatives expects the military non-commissioned officer to be in acute care for the next two to three weeks, and they feel hopeful about his progress, according to the official's statement.

The serviceman was one of a pair of state guardsmen injured by gunfire when a shooter began shooting in proximity to the presidential residence on November 26th. His colleague, twenty-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, died from her injuries.

"We continue to ask all state residents and Americans for their thoughts and prayers!" the governor said.

Morrisey attended a candlelight gathering on Friday evening for the injured soldier at a local secondary school in Inwood, West Virginia, where the serviceman was once a pupil.

A pastor at the event read a statement from the guardsman's mother and father, Jason and Melody Wolfe.

"It is clear to us that there is a difficult journey to go," they wrote, according to regional media outlets.

"However our belief keeps us optimistic. We remain thankful for the prayers and the encouragement from people all over the world."

Earlier in the week, the state official said Staff Sgt Wolfe had acknowledged medical staff with a positive gesture and was capable of move his toes.

Police have charged the suspected shooter, an Afghan national named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, with first-degree murder and attempted murder.

Before coming to the United States in 2021, he was once a counterterrorism soldier in a paramilitary group that worked with US forces in the South Asian nation.

Staff Sgt Wolfe was one of two thousand National Guard members whom President Donald Trump dispatched to the nation's capitol in August as part of his immigration and crime-related crackdown in urban centers.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Trump said he wanted another 500 military personnel deployed to the District of Columbia.

The former presidential office has also cited the shooting as a reason for additional restrictive policies.

They have cancelled all citizenship ceremonies for foreign nationals from a list of nations that were part of a entry restriction implemented over the summer, including Afghanistan.