Officials described the incident as a targeted shooting, though no information about the suspect’s motive has been public by authorities.
West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrissey initially said the two troops from his division of the Guard had died, but later retracted that statement, saying there were “conflicting reports” about the men’s status.
Local police and the Secret Service sped to the scene, which was two blocks from the White House.Credit: AP
At a news conference on Wednesday afternoon local time (Thursday morning AEDT), officials said the two guardsmen were critically wounded and remained in a critical condition at separate local hospitals.
Washington assistant police chief Jeffrey Carroll said the suspect was in custody but had also been taken to hospital for treatment. Trump described the shooter as “severely wounded”.
Dozens of police, Secret Service and ambulance vehicles sped to the scene at Farragut Square, on the corner of 17th and I streets, about 2.15pm Washington time on Wednesday – the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday.
This masthead saw a person being stretchered into a waiting ambulance just after 2.30pm, and about eight National Guard troops running to the scene. Several blocks around the shooting site were blocked to traffic.
Carroll said the troops were on high-visibility patrol when “a suspect came around the corner, raised his arm with a firearm and discharged it at the National Guard members”. He described the attack as an “ambush”.
Other troops nearby were able to subdue the suspect and take him into custody, Carroll said. They were aided by other members of law enforcement who attended the scene.
District of Columbia mayor Muriel Bowser said it was clearly a “targeted shooting”. There were no additional suspects, officials said, and it was believed the shooter acted alone.
The White House was placed in lockdown, though Trump was away in Florida. Trump posted on TruthSocial about the shootings soon afterwards and said the “animal” who was responsible would “pay a very steep price”.
Hundreds of National Guard members from the district and several states have been patrolling the nation’s capital after Trump in August issued an emergency order in the capital, federalising the local police force and sending in the guard.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday (AEDT) said Trump had instructed him to send an additional 500 National Guard troops to the streets of Washington.
He called it a “cowardly, dastardly act targeting the best of America – heroes willing to serve people they don’t know and they’ve never met because they love their country and their capital and their community”.
The attack would only stiffen the Trump administration’s resolve, Hegseth said. “We will never back down, we will secure our capital, we will secure our cities.”
A witness, Stacey Walters, said she heard the shots while she was sitting in an Uber heading to her dry cleaner.
Law enforcement officers in Washington after two National Guard soldiers were shot near the White House.Credit: AP
“I literally heard the ‘boom boom’, two shots,” she said.
She did not see who was shot nor the shooter, but said she saw people running – including uniformed men with guns, believed to be the Secret Service. “Then I heard, ‘Help, help’.”
