National Guard tragedy: Who was Sarah Beckstrom, the 20-year-old soldier killed in DC ambush?

When Sarah Beckstrom joined the National Guard a few days after she graduated high school, she planned to use the service to pay for college. She saw the military as a stepping stone, not a lifelong career.

“She just really was more intrigued by the FBI, with how they work in their mind and their purpose of why they do it, how they got there,” Adam Carr, her former boyfriend, said.

“She really wanted to do criminal justice.”

Beckstrom was nervous when she got orders to go to DC in August as part of President Donald Trump’s order to address local crime, Mr Carr said. She hadn’t lived outside of rural West Virginia since she was very young, and she worried about leaving her family.

Almost as soon as she made it to the nation’s capital, though, Beckstrom, 20, realised she liked it, Mr Carr said. She loved to take pictures of statues, and she sent the ones she took of the Washington Monument to everyone she knew. More importantly, Mr Carr said Beckstrom believed in the mission. She thought that crime was high in DC, and she wanted to be a part of reducing it.

Sometimes, Mr Carr said, residents thanked Beckstrom for her service, but many others viewed the Guard’s presence in the District as unnecessary.

Mr Carr said Beckstrom told him they spat on her and even wished her death. She became frustrated with Guard rules that didn’t allow her to detain anyone who assaulted service members.

“They had the Guard on a leash,” Mr Carr said.

“They had to call the law themselves when someone spat on them. She saw that as pointless. She would tell me, ‘If we ain’t allowed to do anything, why are we here?’”

On Wednesday afternoon, Beckstrom was on patrol outside the Farragut West Metro Station near 17th and I streets when she and a fellow National Guard member, Staff Sargent Andrew Wolfe, were shot at close range in what officials call a “brazen and targeted attack.” Beckstrom died Thursday night with her parents by her side. Sargent Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition.

Tributes to Beckstrom and Sargent Wolfe have come from Mr Trump, who called her an “incredible person, outstanding in every single way,” during a video call with service members from Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, and from West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R), who proclaimed a moment of silence Friday afternoon across the state.

“It is important to remember that in the true spirit of serving in America’s armed forces, both (Staff) Sargent Wolfe and Spec. Beckstrom stepped forward and volunteered for this mission, placing themselves in harm’s way to protect our state and nation,” Mr Morrisey said in a statement released Friday.

Vigils have been held in Beckstrom’s hometown of Webster Springs and another is scheduled for Saturday evening at her former high school, where she played softball, studied health science and graduated with honours.

On Thursday, Webster County High School’s Facebook noted that Beckstrom “has always demonstrated the strength, character, and commitment that make our school and community proud. Her decision to serve her country reflects the very best of what we hope to instill in our Highlander students.”

In Sargent Wolfe’s hometown of Martinsburg, sorrow and dismay at the senselessness of the crime were evident among people who knew the family and those who had never met them.

“I can’t imagine somebody walking with a gun in Washington, DC, and walking around a corner and opening up on somebody in uniform. For me, it’s inconceivable that it could or should happen,” said Jim Creek, a 78-year-old Republican who owns a bookstore in downtown Martinsburg and who supports gun rights but also stricter gun control.

“It’s heartbreaking, and it should have never happened,” said Lynn Lewis, 64, a bookstore employee, because the alleged shooter should not have been allowed into the country, she said.

“I also have friends who probably feel differently from me, and they would say they’re heartbroken that anyone got killed. But if they say it should have never happened, they might say there shouldn’t be any National Guard in DC”

Tonya Fleming, a neighbour of Wolfe’s apartment in central Martinsburg, was shocked to learn one of the victims lived on her street, but not that he was from her area.

“As soon as I saw the news story, (my boyfriend) and I both looked at each other and said the chances of it being somebody from Berkeley County is very great, being near DC,” Ms Fleming said.

Another of Wolfe’s neighbours, Colleen Mooney, said the residents of this neighbourhood, on the outskirts of historic downtown Martinsburg, “are very conscientious of each other, and we do look out for each other.”

Ms Mooney doesn’t know Wolfe personally but said, “I just hope that he felt, regardless of what we believe, regardless what we all agree on, I hope in his heart he believed that he was doing the right thing.”

Beckstrom ultimately wanted to go to college but in the meantime, Mr Carr said, she took a job at Seneca Health Services, a certified community behavioural health centre where her mother worked. Beckstrom worked with addicts and people with mental health issues, Mr Carr said, and that suited her because she was very “bighearted.” She forgave everyone who ever mistreated her, he said.

Beckstrom and Mr Carr started dating when they were 14. They met at Webster County High School, a small school in a small county “surrounded by basically nothing,” Mr Carr said. The town itself had only a few amenities - a gas station, a tiny grocery store and a custard stand where Beckstrom and her sister both worked as teenagers.

Angie Cowger, who owns the Custard Stand, described Beckstrom as “very conscientious” and “dependable.”

“She was a wonderful employee,” Ms Cowger said. “She was very protective of her sister. You know, she wanted to make sure that her sister was hanging out with the right people and involved in the right activities and things like that.”

Her school bus driver, Kenneth Kidd, said, “she just glowed when she talked about the National Guard when she was on the bus.” All throughout her senior year, Kidd said, she talked on the bus about how she planned to enlist.

Ms Cowger said Beckstrom often talked about joining the service to pay for school so she wouldn’t leave her parents saddled with a big tuition bill. She wanted to graduate without debt and with the promise of a government job. Ms Cowger planned shifts around Beckstrom’s busy schedule. She played softball and was active with the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. Sometimes, she showed up still wearing her JROTC uniform.

“It was very uplifting,” Ms Cowger said.

“When you see someone that is her age, that is motivated and determined and knows what they want, has very clear goals and they’re achieving those goals, and you’re just thankful when you’re grateful that kids like Sarah are the kind of people that you want taking care of you and serving.”

Beckstrom and Mr Carr stayed together after high school and moved together to Summersville, a slightly larger small town 45 minutes closer to Beckstrom’s base. She cooked elaborate meals she’d seen online, and they hunted deer and fished together for “anything that would bite.” Her most prized possession, Mr Carr said, was her grandpa’s lure.

Beckstrom made her own butter and canned her own peppers, and Mr Carr said she preferred eating the things they killed or canned over anything processed or store-bought. She was a lively person, he said, but a homebody.

Mr Carr said he was surprised when Beckstrom decided to sign up for a second tour in Washington. She didn’t give him any heads up, he said. She just decided to stay. She told him she still believed in the reasons they were down there. The crime was bad, Mr Carr said she told him, but the Guard could fix that. Mostly, though, Mr Carr said he felt like she’d come to like living in a city.

“Small-town life didn’t really fit her once she got the taste of something else,” he said.

“I think that’s why she volunteered to stay longer.”

They broke up a month ago. They decided to remain friends, but the longer she remained in the city, the more they realised they had grown apart.