The former boyfriend of the National Guardswoman who was tragically killed in Washington, D.C., revealed that she was driven by a desire to make a positive impact, despite facing hostility from the public.

Sarah Beckstrom, aged 20, passed away on Thursday following injuries sustained during an ambush near the White House on Wednesday. Her colleague, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition at the hospital.

Adam Carr, who had been in a relationship with Beckstrom for six years, shared that she often experienced mistreatment while on duty.

“She would say, ‘People spit at us, curse at us, throw things our way, and we can’t do anything about it.’ She felt powerless as she couldn’t detain anyone or stop them from misbehaving. They were instructed to call the police,” Carr recounted to CNN.

According to Carr, Beckstrom often questioned the purpose of their deployment to D.C., feeling it was “pointless” because they were unable to take action.

Beckstrom joined the West Virginia National Guard because she wanted to make a positive change and was hoping to do so while in DC when she was deployed there in August, Carr said.

‘She wanted to make a difference. She wanted to extremely,’ he told the outlet. 

Beckstrom was tragically not able to complete her dying wish, as Carr said: ‘She got deputized in there, and they gave them no rights to do anything.’ 

Sarah Beckstrom, 20, (left, with ex-boyfriend) succumbed to her injures on Thursday after her and fellow guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, were ambushed while on duty near the White House on Wednesday

Adam Carr said Beckstrom wanted to make a difference in the National Guard, but was spat on while on duty in DC 

Beckstrom joined the National Guard in 2023 with dreams of working for the FBI, Carr said. 

Her family spent Thanksgiving by her side until she passed away that evening with her father Gary Beckstrom holding her hand, he told The New York Times. 

Carr remembers his ex-girlfriend as caring and someone who enjoyed nature and road trips. 

‘[She] had a huge heart,’ Carr told CNN. 

He recalled how she used to get up very early to make him lunch in the morning, despite his insistence that she didn’t have to. 

‘I told her not to worry about it, and she would still get up for it anyways, even though she’s got work in a few hours and could be sleeping,’ he told the outlet. 

‘I’d get up by the crack of the dawn, and it’s still dark, and she’d be out there in the kitchen making some sandwiches, throwing in some chips, asking what type of fruit I wanted.’ 

Carr and Beckstrom dated for six years. Carr described Beckstrom as ‘one of the best people around that you could meet’ 

Carr said the 20-year-old questioned why they were deployed to DC if they ‘can’t do nothing’ and that Beckstrom thought it was ‘pointless’ because of it

‘I loved her to pieces. She never deserved any of that. I always wished the best for her,’ Carr (pictured with his mom and Beckstrom) said.

Carr described Beckstrom as ‘one of the best people around that you could meet’.

‘I loved her to pieces. She never deserved any of that. I always wished the best for her,’ he said. 

Beckstrom and Wolfe were blocks away from the White House around 2:15pm on Wednesday when they were allegedly ambushed by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who allegedly opened fire on them, officials said. 

Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan immigrant, is expected to be charged with first-degree murder . He was detained by police after being shot. 

Lakanwal came to America in 2021 as part of the disastrous US withdrawal in Afghanistan after serving as an ally of Special Forces troops in his CIA-backed ‘Zero Unit.’ 

Darin Hoover – the father of Staff Sergeant Darin ‘Taylor’ Hoover, who died in the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul in 2011 – is now blaming the Biden Administration for Beckstrom’s death. 

He said the previous administration failed to properly vet Afghan asylum seekers. 

‘This is on the feckless Biden administration,’ he told Fox News Digital. 

‘We had no idea who was getting into this country because the Biden administration, especially the State Department run by Antony Blinken, didn’t do the work that was needed to vet all these people. There were so many people put on the planes that got out initially, that we have no idea who they were.’ 

Trump called Beckstrom a ‘magnificent person’ who was ‘highly respected’ and ‘outstanding in every way,’ on Thursday 

He went on to claim that some of the Afghans who came to America are ‘likely terrorists that are here in the homeland to do us all harm and take our beloved United States of America’.

FBI sources told Fox News Digital that the ambush is being treated as a possible act of international terrorism. 

Lakanwal entered the US in September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome after the Trump Administration approved his asylum claim in 2025. 

Operation Allies Welcome was set up by the Biden Administration in August 2021 after the US pulled out of Afghanistan, allowing 70,000 asylum seekers into the country.  Under the operation, Afghans were given a two-year parole period before they could apply for a more permanent status. 

Lakanwal applied in December 2024 and was approved on April 23, 2025,  by the Trump administration. Lakanwal, a father-of-five who lives in Washington State, has no criminal history. 

He was approved due to working with the US government during the war in Afghanistan, documents reviewed by Reuters said. 

Trump’s FBI Director, Kash Patel, and Attorney for DC, Jeanine Pirro, have also blamed the Biden Administration for allowing Lakanwal into the country, claiming the previous administration improperly vetted him. 

‘The prior administration made the decision to allow thousands of people into this country without doing a single piece of background checking or vetting,’ Patel asserted during a press conference. 

Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe had been blocks away from the White House around 2:15pm on Wednesday when they were ambushed by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan immigrant 

Wolfe, 24, was also shot in the attack, and he remains in critical condition

Neither Patel nor Pirro provided evidence of their accusations. 

Trump called Beckstrom a ‘magnificent person’ who was ‘highly respected’ and ‘outstanding in every way,’ on Thursday. 

‘She’s no longer with us. She’s looking down on us right now. Her parents are with her. It’s just happened. She was savagely attacked, she’s dead,’ he said on a live-streamed phone call with military personnel. 

‘Just horrible,’ he added.