Air Force Staff Sergeant Recovering Following Being Shot in Washington DC
A servicemember of the National Guard is on the mend after he was critically injured in an targeted attack last month in Washington DC.
The family of the 24-year-old soldier, twenty-four, say "his head wound is gradually improving and that he's starting to 'look more like himself,'" stated 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 recovery, according to the official's statement.
The serviceman was one of a pair of West Virginia National Guard members shot when a gunman opened fire in proximity to the White House on November 26th. His colleague, twenty-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, succumbed to her wounds.
"Our request remains for all state residents and Americans for their prayers!" Morrisey declared.
The governor attended a vigil on last Friday night for the injured soldier at a local secondary school in Inwood, West Virginia, where the serviceman was once a student.
A pastor at the vigil shared a statement from the soldier's parents, Jason and Melody Wolfe.
"We know that there is a long road to go," they expressed, according to local news outlet Metro News.
"However our belief keeps us optimistic. We remain grateful for the well-wishes and the support from people all over the globe."
Earlier in the week, the state official said Staff Sgt Wolfe had responded to a nurse with a thumbs-up and was capable of wiggle his feet.
Law enforcement have formally accused the suspected shooter, an individual from Afghanistan named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, with premeditated homicide and assault with intent to kill.
Before coming to the US in two years ago, he was once a member of a special forces unit in a paramilitary group that operated alongside US forces in Afghanistan.
The injured airman was one of 2,000 militia personnel whom President Donald Trump deployed to the Washington DC in last summer as part of his immigration and crime-related crackdown in urban centers.
Following the incident, Trump said he wanted an additional five hundred military personnel sent to the nation's capital.
The former presidential office has also cited the attack as a justification for further immigration crackdown measures.
They have halted naturalization proceedings for foreign nationals from 19 countries that were part of a entry restriction implemented over the recent season, among them the suspect's home country.
