The ex-boyfriend of National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom has said she felt her deployment to Washington DC was “pointless,” just days before she was fatally shot by an Afghan national.In an interview with CNN, Adam Carr described how his 20-year-old girlfriend grew frustrated with the restrictions placed on her and other Guardsmen. “It was mixed,” Carr said. “She got deputized in there, and they gave them no rights to do anything.”
Carr said Beckstrom often told him about some really bad confrontations with residents. “People spit towards us, cuss at us, throw things at us, and we can’t do nothing,” he recalled and said. “She couldn’t detain nobody. She couldn’t stop them from doing wrong. It was—they told them to call the cops.”Despite her frustration, Beckstrom believed in the mission to combat crime in the city. “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.’” Beckstrom and fellow National Guard member Andrew Wolfe were shot near White House on Thanksgiving Eve. Beckstrom died the following night with her parents at her side, while Wolfe remains in critical condition. A 29-year-old Afghan immigrant, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, has been arrested in connection with the shootings.President Donald Trump announced Beckstrom’s death and called her a “highly respected, young, magnificent person” and was “outstanding in every way.”Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi noted that Beckstrom, who started service in June 2023, had volunteered for the DC deployment over the Thanksgiving period.