Slain National Guard Member Reportedly Thought D.C. Deployment Was ‘Pointless’

The former boyfriend of slain National Guardsman Sarah Beckstrom told CNN on Friday that Beckstrom was frustrated because she felt her hands were tied during her deployment to Washington, D.C.

Twenty-year-old Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe were shot while on patrol on Thanksgiving Eve. Beckstrom succumbed to her wounds, while Wolfe remains hospitalized in critical condition. A 29-year-old Afghan immigrant is in custody, charged with the shootings.

CNN’s Gabe Cohen traveled to West Virginia, where he asked Beckstrom’s former boyfriend Adam Carr, “Did she believe in the mission of being there? Did she think it was important, or did she think they didn’t belong there, the West Virginia National Guard?”

“It was mixed,” Carr said. “She got deputized in there, and they gave them no rights to do anything.”

Carr continued:

She was like, “People spit towards us, cuss at us, throw things at us, and we can’t do nothing.” She couldn’t detain nobody. She couldn’t stop them from doing wrong. It was— they told them to call the cops.

She wanted to make the difference. She wanted to extremely. She was happy with it. And she just was also like, “Why am I here if I can’t do nothing? Where they limited them so much.” She’s like, “It’s pointless.” She’s like, “I get why we’re here. Crime is bad, but it’s pointless if we can’t do anything.”

President Donald Trump announced Beckstrom’s death on Thursday.

“I must unfortunately tell you that just seconds before I went on, right now, I heard that Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the Guardsmen that we are talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person, started service in June of 2023, outstanding in every way, she’s just passed away,” he said. “She’s no longer with us.”

Trump also announced that he would “permanently pause” migration from “third-world countries” to further clamp down on immigration.

Watch the clip above via CNN.