Air Force Staff Sergeant Healing After Being Shot in Washington DC
A servicemember of the Air National Guard is showing improvement 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,'" stated the state's chief executive the governor.
The family expects the Air Force staff sergeant 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 two West Virginia National Guard members injured by gunfire when a gunman began shooting in proximity to the presidential residence on 26 November. His fellow guardsmember, 20-year-old his counterpart, succumbed to her wounds.
"Our request remains for all West Virginians and Americans for their prayers!" the governor said.
The governor was present at a vigil on Friday evening for Staff Sgt Wolfe at a local secondary school in Inwood, West Virginia, where the guardsman was once a pupil.
A clergyman at the vigil shared a message from the guardsman's mother and father, Jason and Melody Wolfe.
"We know that there is a long road to go," they wrote, according to regional media outlets.
"But our faith keeps us hopeful. We remain grateful for the well-wishes and the support from people all over the world."
Previously, the state official said Staff Sgt Wolfe had acknowledged medical staff with a thumbs-up and was capable of move his toes.
Police have charged the suspected shooter, an individual from Afghanistan named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, with premeditated homicide and attempted murder.
Prior to his arrival to the US in 2021, he was once a member of a special forces unit in a paramilitary group that operated alongside US forces in the South Asian nation.
Staff Sgt Wolfe was one of 2,000 National Guard members whom the former president dispatched to the nation's capitol in last summer as part of his immigration and crime-related crackdown in urban centers.
Following the shooting, the former president said he wanted another 500 military personnel sent to the nation's capital.
The former presidential office has also referenced the shooting as a justification for additional immigration crackdown measures.
They have cancelled all citizenship ceremonies for immigrants from 19 countries that were part of a entry restriction implemented over the summer, among them the suspect's home country.
