Air Force Staff Sergeant Recovering After Sustaining Gunshot Wounds in the Nation's Capital
A member of the Air National Guard is on the mend after he was gravely wounded in an ambush-style shooting last month in Washington DC.
The family of Andrew Wolfe, twenty-four, say "his head wound is gradually improving and that he's starting to 'regain his familiar appearance,'" stated West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey.
The family expects the military non-commissioned officer to be in intensive treatment for the next two to three weeks, and they feel optimistic about his progress, said the governor.
Staff Sgt Wolfe was one of two state guardsmen injured by gunfire when a shooter opened fire not far from the presidential residence on 26 November. His fellow guardsmember, twenty-year-old his counterpart, died from her injuries.
"We continue to ask all state residents and Americans for their prayers!" Morrisey declared.
The governor was present at a candlelight gathering on last Friday night for the injured soldier at Musselman High School in his hometown, where the guardsman was once a pupil.
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 difficult journey to go," they wrote, as reported by regional media Metro News.
"But 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 responded to a nurse with a positive gesture and was capable of move his toes.
Police have charged the alleged gunman, an Afghan national named the suspect, with premeditated homicide and assault with intent to kill.
Prior to his arrival to the US in two years ago, he was once a counterterrorism soldier in a paramilitary group that operated alongside American troops in Afghanistan.
The injured airman was one of two thousand National Guard members whom the former president dispatched to the nation's capitol in August as part of his immigration and crime-related crackdown in urban centers.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the former president said he wanted another 500 National Guard troops deployed to the District of Columbia.
The Trump administration has also cited the shooting as a justification for additional immigration crackdown measures.
They have halted naturalization proceedings for immigrants from a list of nations that were part of a entry restriction implemented over the recent season, among them the suspect's home country.
