Guardsmen who reacted to November attack receive medals for heroism

Two officers with the West Virginia National Guard received awards for heroism Monday for stopping a gunman who attacked a National Guard patrol in Washington, D.C. The attack killed another West Virginia soldier.

Army Maj. Ryan S. Reynolds and Air Force Maj. Edwin O. Stanfield received the Soldier’s Medal and Airman’s Medal, respectively, on Monday. The two were outside a Metro station in Washington in November when a gunman opened fire on a patrol of Guardsmen nearby, killing Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and injuring Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, two West Virginia National Guard members.

The Soldier’s Medal and Airman’s Medal are their respective branch’s top honors for acts of heroism outside of combat. Troops have received the medal for actions including disarming shooters or rescuing people trapped in burning or crashed vehicles.

Reynolds and Stanfield traded gunfire with the gunman, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, before subduing him and directing civilians to safety and starting medical care.

Lakanwal, an Afghan national, worked with a CIA-affiliated unit in Afghanistan before emigrating to the U.S.

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“These two gentlemen faced uncertainty, uncertainty like most of us had never faced,” Maj. Gen. Jim Seward, the adjutant general of West Virginia, said at Monday’s ceremony.

Beckstrom died from her injuries a day later. Wolfe has been recovering and was in attendance at Monday’s event at the Pentagon. Both Wolfe and Beckstrom were awarded the Purple Heart this February.

Reynolds is the executive officer of the 771st Troop Command Battalion, while Stanfield is an intelligence officer with the 167th Airlift Wing. The two have served in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and the southern border, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who presented the awards to the two.

More than 2,300 National Guard troops remain deployed to Washington as part of Joint Task Force – District of Columbia, the majority from states outside the district.

The National Guard was deployed to Washington in August after Trump Administration claims of rampant crime in the capital, an assertion that does not match federal data gathered before the mobilization that showed crime in the capital at multi-year lows after many years of reduction. During Monday’s ceremony, Hegseth described the city as unsafe when the National Guard deployed, with “lawless streets wracked by gangs and bloodthirsty criminals.”

Along with members of the District of Columbia National Guard, several states have sent troops to take part in JTF-DC, which is expected to remain active in the capital into 2029, according to a report from ABC News in March.