“She was brutally attacked, she’s dead,” Trump said of Sarah Backstrom, 20, who served in the West Virginia National Guard.
The other West Virginia National Guard soldier who was shot is a 24-year-old man who is “fighting for his life” and “is in very bad shape,” Trump said.
Trump described Backstrom as a “highly respected, young, great person” and said he learned of her death shortly before a video conference call in which he addressed U.S. troops on Thanksgiving Day.
The only suspect in the shooting is a 29-year-old Afghan national who was detained shortly after the incident. Trump has called the shooting a “terrorist attack.”
The attacker, whose motive remains unclear, lived in Billingham, Washington with his wife and five children. He had crossed the country to come to the US capital where he carried out this attack.