Donald Trump announces death of National Guard troop shot near White House

US President Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump on Thursday confirmed that Sarah Beckstrom, one of the two National Guard troops shot near the White House a day earlier, had died from her injuries, while the second soldier remains in critical condition.

Donald Trump, speaking ahead of a Thanksgiving video call with US service members, praised Beckstrom as a “highly respected, young, magnificent person,” adding that he had been informed of her death moments before joining the call.

Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds and her fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was "fighting for his life," Trump said, as investigators conducted what officials said was a terrorism investigation after Wednesday's shooting.

“The other young man, is fighting for his life. He's in very bad shape,” Trump said as he addressed the troops.

"I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation that the terrorist attack yesterday in our nation's capital, in which a savage monster gunned down two service members in the West Virginia National Guard, who were deployed as part of the DC Task Force," Trump said in a Thanksgiving call for U.S. military service members.

Trump said the suspect's "atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country."

Armed with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, the gunman shot one member who fell and then shot again before firing multiple times at the second member. The gunman was wounded in an exchange of fire with Guard members before he was arrested. He was in hospital under heavy guard on Thursday, and Trump said he was in serious condition.

The alleged assailant, who lived in Washington state with his wife and five children, appeared to have acted alone, said Jeff Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.