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Details About Suspect, Victims in D.C. National Guard Shooting Revealed; Trump Escalates Immigration Crackdown After Guard Member's Death; Trump Says, U.S. Will Very Soon Take Action on Land to Stop Alleged Venezuelan Drug Traffickers. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 28, 2025 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, upgraded charges, the death penalty could now be on the table for the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members.

Plus, breaking news, right now, firefighters on the scene as a fire rips through multiple buildings in downtown St. Louis.

And if you are on the hunt for a Black Friday deal, before you whip out that card, stay with us because we've got a few tips to keep you from overspending.

A warm Friday, welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Erica Hill. Wolf and Pamela are off. You are in The Situation Room.

Happening now, more details are being revealed about Wednesday's deadly shooting in Washington, D.C., where members of the National Guard from West Virginia were targeted. The U.S. attorney for D.C. says the suspect will be charged with murder in the first degree. West Virginia's governor telling CNN just moments ago he still supports the deployment of his state's guard members to Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. PATRICK MORRISEY (R-WV): Protecting the safety of the Capitol is really an important mission, then I'm supportive of that. And I know that what President Trump is trying to do in terms of additional vetting, I'm for anything that could help improve the situation because it's unfathomable how something like this could happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom died yesterday after being shot on Wednesday, the defense secretary attending her dignified transfer. The other Guard member who was shot in that attack, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, does remain in critical condition at this hour.

Authorities are still working to determine a motive. What we can tell you is that suspect is an Afghan national who came to the United States legally in 2021. Prior to that, he had worked with the CIA and was vetted by intelligence agencies. According to U.S. official, he was deemed, quote, clean on all checks. He had also applied for asylum and was granted that asylum earlier this year. President Trump is calling for an immigration crackdown in the wake of the attack.

CNN's Brian Todd has been covering this forest from the very beginning and joins us this hour from Washington, D.C. So, let's start off, first of all, Brian, with these upgraded charges. Walk us through it.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Erica. You know, the administration since the shooting occurred, had kind of telegraphed that they would be doing this if indeed one of the Guard members would pass away. And, of course, we got that unfortunate news last night that 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom had died as a result of her injuries in the shooting.

Well, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, pretty much made it official on Fox News just a short time ago. Take a listen to what she said about the upgraded charges.

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JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR D.C.: There are certainly many more charges to come, but we are upgrading the initial charges of assault to murder in the first-degree. And we are hoping that the more information we can get and the more investigation that is going on 24/7 now around the clock in Washington, the more we will find out about what actually happened in terms of this individual even being in this country and being in a position to ambush and shoot down an innocent young woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: And we -- you know, we were in touch with some officials in D.C. over the past couple of days regarding the suspect and whether he's cooperating. We have been told consistently throughout this that he is not cooperating. I got a chance to speak to Jeff Carroll. He's the executive assistant chief of the D.C. Police Department yesterday, as we left a news conference, and I said, is there any update on the suspect and whether he is cooperating? He said, no, he's still in the hospital recovering from his wounds that he sustained here at the scene when a Guardsman engaged him in gunfire and struck him.

Now, there are additional charges that Jeanine Pirro alluded to that could include possession of a firearm. I believe she already said that he would be charged with that as well. So, we're going to see about the first-degree murder charge being brought formally.

In the meantime, Erica, a makeshift memorial here behind me right here at the shooting scene has kind of grown over the past day we were here, more flowers being laid, American flags, there's a heart shaped wreath right there, and, you know, clearly some signs of the shooting. We still see bullet holes in these planters here, you know, just a solemn reminder of what happened just about a day-and-a-half ago. Erica? HILL: Yes, absolutely. And these two National Guard members so young who were attacked, Sarah Beckstrom, just 20 years old, who, of course, died of her wounds. What more do we know about them, Brian?

TODD: Well, one update that Jeanine Pirro was able to give a short time ago is that Andrew Wolfe, the other Guard member who was hit by gunfire is still in critical condition.

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He's 24 years old. He has been with the Guard since 2019. He remains in critical condition at a local hospital.

Jason Wolfe, who is Andrew Wolfe's father, yesterday spoke to our colleague, Gabe Cohen, and he told Gabe, quote, please keep my son in your prayers. He said his son is a great person and he's a fighter. So, hopefully, Mr. Wolfe will pull through here, but still remains in critical condition at a local hospital.

And in the meantime, we got, you know, what was known as a dignified transfer. This came overnight in the late night hours last night, a dignified transfer of Sarah Beckstrom's body. Her body was transferred to the D.C. Medical Examiner's Office, and it was a very solemn scene. Members of the National Guard, DEA, FBI, Metropolitan Washington Police, agents, all lined the streets and saluted her as she passed by them last night. You know, it's -- her family had also corresponded with the media over the last couple of days talking about what a great person she was. Her former boyfriend also told Gabe Cohen that she was just a great person who would kind of do anything for anyone. She was 20 years old at the time she died.

HILL: Brian, I also wanted to ask you, you have covered extensively since the National Guard was first deployed to the district in August. You have covered how they were received, how that mission has been going for them. Can you just walk us through what has transpired over the last several months and what it has been like for these National Guard members? Because there is now this concern that we have heard from a number of former officials and current analysts who we speak with about additional Guard members being sent to the district, that that could make them targets.

TODD: Well, right. And right after the shooting, Erica, President Trump and his aides basically had said that they're going to request additional National Guardsmen. I can't quite remember the number. I think it was a couple hundred at least more, and there were already more than 2,000 of them here. And their appearance since they started coming here in mid-August has been controversial. There have been protests here in D.C. against their presence. There have been people, I've witnessed it myself, people coming up to them and jeering them, screaming at them, telling them to go home.

Now, there are a lot of other people, we have to say on the other side of that coin, a lot of other people who've been very friendly to the National Guardsmen. Mostly they've been patrolling in areas like this. They've been patrolling around metro train stations, monuments, some areas that are popular with restaurants and nightclubs in the district. They have not gone into some of the high crime areas because they're -- one of their officials told me in August that's not really their mission.

So, we're going to see what kind of presence they have here if there indeed is an influx of additional National Guard troops and how they're going to be received in this city, that's going to be the next thing that we're going to be watching very closely here.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Brian, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Also joining us this hour, CNN Law Enforcement Contributor Steve Moore, he's a retired FBI supervisory special agent. Steve, good to see you.

Let's take a look at where we stand in terms of what we know about the suspect. So, much has been made of the fact that he worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, that he was vetted in 2021 to come to the U.S., applied for asylum in '24, was granted asylum just back in April of this year, and that he was deemed, quote, clean on all checks by U.S. intelligence agencies. Given the number of checks that he has gone through over the years, what could have been missed? I mean, just give us a sense of how extensive these checks are.

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Erica, what I'm hearing from them is that they did several checks over the course of the last three years. An average in-depth background investigation, say, like the FBI agents would have to go through every five years, takes almost a year to complete. So, what they're telling me is, or what I'm hearing is that they did three, maybe four tests in three years. I don't think they could have been doing an adequate background check. I think it sounds like what they were doing is cursory things, kind of like a probation officer, are you gainfully employed, are you okay, asking them for information from the suspect himself or from this person himself, rather than an in-depth investigation of the person.

HILL: So, if that was the way that these checks were unfolding, in your experience -- I'm putting you on a spot a little bit here, my friend, but in your experience, would that be the same procedure that is used across the board, right, so not just perhaps for Afghans who came in 2021 under this program, but for everyone in the U.S. who's seeking asylum, would that be the same standard procedure?

MOORE: I don't know what the asylum investigation process is or the hoops that you have to jump through, but I would assume it's, number one, a national agency check, have you committed any crimes, things like that.

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The problem, Erica, is that with these investigations, even if you did a comprehensive investigation when they arrived in the United States for asylum or requesting asylum, all you're getting is a snapshot. You're not getting a continuing video. You've taken a person out of a kind of an ancient culture, sent them to the United States from Afghanistan to Bellingham, Washington, and changed their life dramatically. You can't just assume that it all went well because it's going to be a drastic change. And so I would suggest that a person is going to have to need more than that.

HILL: There is so much that we don't know and so much lends itself to speculation, so, obviously, we want to be careful about that. But given that we are told, and as we just heard from Brian that there is no sign the suspect has begun cooperating, he's still in the hospital, according to Brian's reporting, but there are questions about, let's say, you know, everything was on the up and up and the fact that he cleared all of these checks by U.S. intelligence, my colleague, John Miller, talking about we need to look at whether or not there may have been an opportunity for the suspect or frankly anybody else to become radicalized.

How does that begin that investigation into figuring out how or if, or when someone may have become radicalized?

MOORE: Well, I think what you're going to have to look at is who he associated with, who he bonded with when he came to the United States. People who are radical already are looking for people who they can bring to their cause. It's kind of an evangelical thing for them. Who can we bring over who would be on our side? I can imagine him arriving in Bellingham and all of a sudden he's got all these skills from the military, from CIA cooperation, he would be incredible for them.

So, what would happen is it's kind of a grooming thing in some ways. They'll come alongside of you. Do you need anything? Can we just be friends? They get somebody who spoke his language. And, you know, it's just a very simple yet complicated program that people go through. And then you get them online. You start looking -- you know, when you look only at one side of any issue, you're going to gravitate towards that side. So, they get them on social media and get them involved that way.

HILL: Real quickly, Steve, if you were part of this investigation, what would be your main question today?

MOORE: Did he act alone? Who was he talking to and was he talking to anybody overseas?

HILL: Steve Moore, I always appreciate your insight and your expertise. Thank you.

MOORE: Thank you.

HILL: We are getting some new information into The Situation Room about 20-year-old Beckstrom, who, of course, died yesterday as a result of her injuries from that shooting.

CNN's Gabe Cohen joining us now. So, Gabe, you just spoke with someone who knew Sarah Beckstrom. What more have you learned.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Erica, we just wrapped up an interview with 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom's longtime boyfriend. They dated for about six years, just split up a month ago. But he cared deeply for her. And I want to first set the scene of exactly where we are here, because this is an important place. This is what he described as Sarah's happy place. This is Salmon Run. We're near Summersville, West Virginia, where the two of them had lived. She's from just about 45 minutes down the road, and he wanted to meet us here to talk about her and to tell us who she was as a person and what he and so many in this community are going through right now.

Here's a little bit of our conversation.

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ADAM CARR, SARAH BECKSTROM'S FORMER BOYFRIEND: I don't know if it's really hit me the hardest yet, kind of in shock. It's a little hard to grasp the whole concept that there ain't no more of her around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: And so, Erica, you can get a feel there of what people in this community are experiencing right now, of course, including her family and Andrew Wolfe's family as he remains in critical condition right now. So, many unanswered question, but both of those National Guard members obviously from the state of West Virginia, you know, Adam Carr talking a lot about how conflicted Sarah felt about being deployed to Washington, D.C., but felt that she was serving the country and doing something important for the community there.

HILL: Yes and we have heard, of course, from officials from the governor or the attorney general who I spoke with in the wake of the shooting as well about how she had volunteered to be there as well.

Gabe, it's really good to have you on the ground there. Thank you.

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Well, in the wake of this attack, President Trump has said his administration will work to, quote, permanently pause migration from all third world countries, in his words, going on to say, it would allow the U.S. system to fully recover. The White House also plans to review all asylum cases, which were approved by the Biden administration. The suspect here came into the U.S. in 2021 under a program implemented during the Biden era following the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was ultimately granted asylum in April of this year by the Trump administration, according to multiple law enforcement officials.

CNN Senior White House Reporter Betsy Klein is in Washington, D.C., following more of those developments for us at this hour.

So, in terms of this plan to further crack down on immigration and specifically looking at asylum seekers and those from a number of countries, where does that stand this morning, Betsy?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Erica, the Trump administration has launched an invest in interagency investigation into how this attack could have happened at the same time that they are ramping up President Trump's aggressive immigration policies. The suspect in this shooting is an Afghan national. We know that he came to the U.S. in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome. That is that Biden era program to resettle Afghans in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He applied for asylum in 2024, and that asylum was granted under the Trump administration in April of 2025.

Now, we've also learned that this suspect worked with U.S. forces, including the CIA, a U.S. official telling CNN that he was vetted by intelligence agencies and clean on all checks. So, now, as Steve laid out, there are so many questions about his pathway to violence as this investigation continues.

But there are key new steps to crack down on immigration, including a review of all Biden era asylum applications. We've also heard from the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, who announced that, at the president's direction, he has ordered the reexamination of all green cards issued to people from countries of concern. That is a list of about 19 countries. It includes Afghanistan, along with Iran, Venezuela, and several others, but the president calling this a matter of national security. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: This heinous atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remained in our country. For the most part, we don't want them.

When it comes to asylum, when they're flown in, it's very hard to get them out. No matter how you want to do it, it's very hard to get them out. But we're going to be getting them all out now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: The president last night also calling for what he described as reverse migration. In a lengthy post to social media, he called for the permanent pause on migration from what he said was all third world countries. We are asking the White House for clarity on what countries that includes. Erica?

HILL: Betsy, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Still to come here, high tensions, U.S. land action against alleged drug traffickers in Venezuela will start, quote, very soon. So, what could that look like?

And we are also following this major winter storm, a lot of trouble brewing potentially for anybody trying to get home from their Thanksgiving holiday.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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[10:20:00] HILL: We do want to give you a quick update on some breaking news that we've been following this morning, this massive fire at a vacant warehouse complex in St. Louis. You see the images here. So, it broke out overnight. Officials say it could keep burning into the weekend.

We know at this hour that at least one of the four buildings involved has collapsed. The fire chief telling our affiliate, the blaze, though, is under control. So, why will it continue to potentially go through the weekend? That's because of its size.

It is important to note too, no reports at this hour of injury. So that is the good news. No word yet on what caused the fire. We're going to continue to follow that and bring in any developments.

New this morning, President Trump suggesting that the U.S. could, in his words, soon begin targeted alleged -- begin targeting, rather, alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers by land. Here's a little bit more of what he had to say. It was during a Thanksgiving call with troops stationed around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: In the recent weeks, you've been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many. Of course, there aren't too many coming in by sea anymore.

People aren't wanting to be delivering by sea, and we'll be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but that's going to start very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So let's discuss what that could look like. Joining us now, CNN Military Analyst, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel, always good to talk to you.

So, it is a marked, perhaps escalation, in many ways, but I would say not entirely unexpected to hear these words from the president, although there are a lot of questions about what this would look like and also whether Congress needs to be involved.

Let's tackle question one first. In terms of any sort of land involvement, what would that look like?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. Good morning, Erica. Well, there's several possible scenarios here and what the president was saying last night seemed to indicate that they were going to go after the drug labs that they believe are there. That could mean actions along the Venezuelan-Colombian border, for example. That scenario where there is some drug trafficking and there's also some spillover from Colombia when it comes to the kinds of things, you know, that are there.

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The designation of the so-called Cartel de los Soles, the Cartel of the Sun, that's going to be a little bit hard to target unless they have made the connection with actual Venezuelan officials. So, the Cartel de los Soles is actually a loose confederation that, as far as we know so far, of potential government officials in the Venezuelan government, that could potentially mean government entities are going to be targeted. So, that would be an escalation of this effort.

So, what I would foresee would be the use of airstrikes first, if this, in fact, does come to pass, and then the possibility, if those don't work or if there's a need to mop things up, of moving troops on the ground.

Now, I think the president wants to avoid that last possible scenario but that's going to really be the kind of thing that that we have to look out for. There's also the possibility, of course, that they would go after Venezuela military installations, such as air bases. And there are a couple of air bases that are right along the coast there, one near Caracas, another one further west, that could potentially be targeted by any types of strikes that the U.S. might launch.

HILL: Real quickly, I do also want to get your take before we shift to Ukraine, so I do want to get you on that as well. There are there are concerns, and certainly we have heard them from members of Congress but also well beyond that, about the lack of information and, in many ways, concrete evidence that has emerged from these boat strikes and what that could mean given that we don't know a lot about what was actually happening there, in addition to the fact that the majority of these drugs that the president is talking about don't actually come that way. Of course, we know that the majority of the fentanyl is not coming on a boat from Venezuela. So, how could that impact any decision for whether it's airstrikes or something on land?

LEIGHTON: Yes, that's going to be really interesting because you're absolutely right. The kind of, you know, supposed intelligence that they're using does not seem to be borne out by the fact as we know them publicly. So, you know, as you mentioned, fentanyl does not, generally speaking, come through Venezuela. It does in part come through Columbia. But, primarily, it comes from China and then into Mexico.

So, what would happen as they strike Venezuela? Well, the interdiction of seaborne assets is something that, you know, is currently happening, but that's the kind of thing that has to happen constantly if it's going to be effective.

So, as soon as our forces are withdrawn from that area, that kind of activity will probably pick up once again. That's usually what happens. So, the staying power of us involvement is going to be critical here. And I think that's going to be a critical element.

HILL: I also want to get your take. You know, we're hearing more forceful language, in many ways, from Vladimir Putin, who does not seem willing to give an inch on anything here when it comes to Ukraine. You've noted that it was probably only actual military presence, say, NATO troops in Ukraine, not additional sanctions. That would be one of the only things that could perhaps force Vladimir Putin's hand to actually negotiate. Do you see that happening? LEIGHTON: Unfortunately, I don't for Ukraine. And the key thing here is, Erica, if we really wanted to get Russia's attention, it would require -- just based on historical precedent, it really would require some kind of major military action that would indicate that Russia has gone a bit too far in its invasion of Ukraine. And, you know, anybody who's looking at this sees Russia as being the aggressor.

And this kind of -- the kind of actions that Putin is talking about really would amount to being able to get land that he has not been able to conquer militarily. That's a major issue because it would basically be rewarding his aggressive behavior. And that, of course, would be extremely, extremely dangerous not only for Ukraine but for NATO as well.

HILL: Absolutely, it sets quite a precedent. Colonel Leighton, always good to talk to you, thank you.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Erica. Great to see you.

HILL: Still ahead here with budgets, tight inflation, high holiday weekend sales may be tempting, but could they also end up making you overspend? Let's be realistic. Are these even deals anymore? We'll get to that answer after the break.

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