National Guardsman 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 parents of the 24-year-old soldier, 24, report "the injury to his head is gradually improving and that he's beginning to 'look more like himself,'" stated the state's chief executive Patrick Morrisey.

The soldier's relatives expects the military non-commissioned officer to be in intensive treatment for the next two to three weeks, and they feel hopeful about his progress, said the governor.

The serviceman was one of a pair of state guardsmen injured by gunfire when a gunman began shooting in proximity to the presidential residence on 26 November. His fellow guardsmember, twenty-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, succumbed to her wounds.

"Our request remains for all state residents and the nation's citizens for their thoughts and prayers!" the governor said.

Morrisey was present at a vigil on Friday evening 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 soldier's parents, his family.

"We know that there is a difficult journey to go," they wrote, according to regional media Metro News.

"However our belief keeps us hopeful. We remain thankful for the well-wishes and the encouragement from people all over the world."

Earlier in the week, the state official said the serviceman had acknowledged medical staff with a thumbs-up and was capable of wiggle his feet.

Police have formally accused the alleged gunman, an Afghan national named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, with first-degree murder and attempted murder.

Before coming to the US in 2021, he was once a member of a special forces unit 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 the former president deployed to the nation's capitol in last summer as part of his policy initiative in urban centers.

In the aftermath of the incident, the former president said he wanted an additional five hundred National Guard troops deployed to the nation's capital.

The former presidential office has also cited the attack as a justification for further immigration crackdown measures.

They have halted naturalization proceedings for foreign nationals from a list of nations that were part of a travel ban implemented over the summer, among them the suspect's home country.