National Guardsman Healing Following Sustaining Gunshot Wounds in the Nation's Capital
A servicemember of the Air National Guard is showing improvement after he was critically injured in an ambush-style shooting last month in Washington DC.
The family of Andrew Wolfe, twenty-four, say "the injury to his head is slowly healing and that he's starting to 'look more like himself,'" stated West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey.
The family 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, said the governor.
Staff Sgt Wolfe was one of two West Virginia National Guard members shot when a gunman opened fire in proximity to the White House on 26 November. His fellow guardsmember, twenty-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, succumbed to her wounds.
"We continue to ask all state residents and the nation's citizens for their thoughts and prayers!" Morrisey declared.
Morrisey was present at a candlelight gathering on Friday evening for Staff Sgt Wolfe at a local secondary school in his hometown, where the serviceman was once a pupil.
A pastor 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 expressed, according to local news outlet outlets.
"However our belief keeps us optimistic. We remain thankful for the prayers and the support from people all over the world."
Earlier in the week, the governor said the serviceman had acknowledged medical staff with a thumbs-up and was able to move his toes.
Police have charged the alleged gunman, an individual from Afghanistan named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, with first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Prior to his arrival to the United States in two years ago, he was once a member of a special forces unit in a CIA-backed unit that operated alongside American troops in Afghanistan.
The injured airman was one of two thousand militia personnel whom the former president dispatched to the nation's capitol in last summer as part of his policy initiative in Democratic-led cities.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the former president said he desired an additional five hundred National Guard troops sent to the nation's capital.
The former presidential office has also referenced the attack as a justification for additional restrictive policies.
They have halted naturalization proceedings for immigrants from 19 countries that were part of a entry restriction implemented over the summer, among them Afghanistan.
