Air Force Staff Sergeant Recovering After Sustaining Gunshot Wounds in Washington DC
A servicemember of the National Guard is on the mend after he was gravely wounded in an ambush-style shooting last month in the US capital.
The family of the 24-year-old soldier, 24, say "the injury to his head is gradually improving and that he's starting to 'look more like himself,'" stated West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey.
The soldier's relatives anticipates the Air Force staff sergeant to be in intensive treatment for the coming fortnight, and they feel optimistic about his progress, said the governor.
The serviceman was one of two state guardsmen injured by gunfire when a gunman opened fire not far from the presidential residence on November 26th. His fellow guardsmember, twenty-year-old his counterpart, succumbed to her wounds.
"We continue to ask all state residents and the nation's citizens for their prayers!" the governor said.
Morrisey attended a vigil on Friday evening for the injured soldier at Musselman High School in Inwood, West Virginia, where the serviceman was once a pupil.
A pastor at the vigil read a statement from the soldier's parents, his family.
"It is clear to us that there is a difficult journey to go," they expressed, as reported by local news outlet outlets.
"But our belief keeps us optimistic. We remain thankful for the well-wishes and the encouragement from people all over the globe."
Earlier in the week, the state official said Staff Sgt Wolfe had responded to a nurse with a thumbs-up and was capable of move his toes.
Police have formally accused the alleged gunman, an individual from Afghanistan named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, with first-degree murder 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 CIA-backed unit that worked with American troops in Afghanistan.
Staff Sgt Wolfe was one of 2,000 National Guard members whom President Donald Trump dispatched to the nation's capitol in August 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 sent to the District of Columbia.
The Trump administration has also referenced the attack as a justification for further restrictive policies.
They have halted naturalization proceedings for immigrants from 19 countries that were part of a entry restriction announced over the summer, among them Afghanistan.