Air Force Staff Sergeant Recovering Following Being Shot in the Nation's Capital
A member of the National Guard is on the mend after he was critically injured in an ambush-style shooting last month in the US capital.
The family of Andrew Wolfe, twenty-four, report "his head wound is slowly healing and that he's starting to 'regain his familiar appearance,'" 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 optimistic about his progress, according to the official's statement.
The serviceman was one of a pair of West Virginia National Guard members injured by gunfire when a shooter began shooting in proximity to the presidential residence on 26 November. His fellow guardsmember, twenty-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, succumbed to her wounds.
"We continue to ask all state residents and Americans for their prayers!" Morrisey declared.
Morrisey was present at a vigil on Friday evening for the injured soldier at a local secondary school in his hometown, where the guardsman was once a student.
A clergyman at the vigil shared a message from the guardsman's mother and father, his family.
"It is clear to us that there is a long road to go," they wrote, according to regional media outlets.
"But 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 governor said Staff Sgt Wolfe had responded to a nurse with a thumbs-up and was capable of wiggle his feet.
Police have charged the alleged gunman, an Afghan national named the suspect, with first-degree murder and assault with intent to kill.
Prior to his arrival to the United States in two years ago, he was once a counterterrorism soldier in a CIA-backed unit that worked with US forces in the South Asian nation.
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, the former president said he desired an additional five hundred military personnel deployed to the nation's capital.
The former presidential office has also referenced the shooting as a justification for additional immigration crackdown measures.
They have halted naturalization proceedings for foreign nationals from 19 countries that were part of a travel ban implemented over the recent season, including the suspect's home country.
