Bustling DC retail district in shock after shooting of National Guard members

By Brian Todd, Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN

Washington (CNN) — Fasil Regassa wipes away tears when he talks about Sarah Beckstrom, the 20-year-old National Guard member who was shot Wednesday just a few feet away from his store.

“I cried when I heard she died,” Regassa told CNN.

For nine years, Regassa and his wife, immigrants from Ethiopia, have managed a 7-Eleven convenience store just across the street from the shooting scene. When the shooting started, Regassa said, he locked the front doors of his store and rushed the three or four customers inside to a back area for safety.

In the bustling downtown area of Washington, DC, blocks away from the White House and packed with tourists, chain restaurants, cafes, banks, stores and corporate offices, business community members are still processing the violence and chaos they experienced near the Farragut West Metro Station.

Beckstrom and fellow guard member Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot multiple times by a lone gunman just outside the entrance to the metro station. Beckstrom died from her injuries Thursday evening. Both soldiers, members of the West Virginia National Guard, had been deployed to the nation’s capital during President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in August of this year.

Regassa said the presence of National Guard members in this district has made the area “more safe” and described the Guard members who have come into his store for snacks and drinks as “completely nice people.”

He says he appreciates the guard members and feels the retail area was a more dangerous place before their arrival. He told CNN of an incident in 2020 when he says five assailants overran his store, stole some goods and caused him to suffer a broken leg when one of them crashed down on him as he lay on the floor.

Rosa Fuentes was also caught up in the chaos of Wednesday afternoon. Fuentes manages the Tatte Bakery & Cafe, less than a block from the shooting scene. When she heard the shots, Fuentes said, she immediately closed and locked the doors of the restaurant and kept customers inside.

She saw one woman outside running, who she described as crying, “shaking” and “panicking,” and she opened the doors to let her in. “We were scared,” Fuentes said, because “we didn’t know if they had got the guy.”

Fuentes, who has a 23-year-old daughter, also fought back tears when she reflected on Beckstrom’s death. She said she was crying when she heard the news, “and was thinking about how her parents felt.”

Fuentes, an immigrant from El Salvador, described the guardsmen who come into her restaurant as nice people, but she has mixed feelings about the Trump administration’s plans to deploy additional guard soldiers to Washington in the wake of the shooting. She initially said she thought it could make the area safer, but added, “I don’t know,” saying that she’s worried about what could happen to the guard members themselves.

The manager of another cafe nearby, who declined to provide her name or the name of the establishment, said she witnessed the shooting, describing it as “shocking.” She recalled locking the doors of the cafe and getting customers down on the ground in the moments afterward. She said the guardsmen patrolling the area since August have kept a “low profile,” and she is pleased that more of them could be deployed here soon. They’d provide “another layer of protection,” she said.

Gyanu Sapkota, an immigrant from Nepal who has managed a Subway sandwich shop near Farragut Square for 18 years, told CNN that guard members would often come into his shop during their deployment, and he said Beckstrom and Wolfe looked familiar to him.

The guard members in the city “are very, very nice,” said Sapkota, who was not at the store during the shooting. “Most were very friendly. Most of them were very young.”

Before the arrival of the guard members in the tourist-heavy area, Sapkota said he often had problems with people coming into his store and stealing drinks and bags of chips. But he said the presence of the National Guard in the area has made him and his employees feel safer, and he applauded the plan to send more guard troops to DC. “That’s better for us,” Sapkota said.

Managers of local branches of major banks that operate in Farragut Square, who declined to give their names, described to CNN locking doors and taking cover after the shooting, seeing police converging on the scene and people running past their windows.

While one of the managers described the shooting as “sad,” he said of the presence of the guard members in the area, “I didn’t want them here.”

“In my opinion, they’re military folks, and they’re always going to be targeted,” he said. “I just feel there’s ways you can do more in the community to cut violence. I don’t think the National Guard would do that.”

The manager of another bank described the guard members in the area as friendly, and he said one of them gave him a patch as a kind gesture. But he added, of the possible deployment of additional guard members here, “I don’t think they should bring more of them here. I don’t think it’ll help the situation.”

Makeshift memorial draws emotional reflections

On Friday, a makeshift memorial to the victims at the site of the shooting grew by the hour, with people placing flowers, wreaths, flags and notes in an outdoor planter by the entrance to the Farragut West station.

A 21-year-old Marine, who did not give his name because he’s not authorized to speak to the media, placed a vase of roses, an American flag patch and two challenge coins at the memorial.

After taking a moment to reflect on the victims, he told CNN he thought the political rhetoric and finger-pointing following the shooting has been “disgusting.”

“It all needs to stop,” he said. “We need to recognize that a US service member has lost their life.”

A note was placed that read: “Praying for all Nat’l Guard — thank you for all you do.”

A man who laid flowers said, while he didn’t agree with the National Guard’s deployment in the city, “she didn’t deserve to die.”

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