Spanish
Washington,.- Two agents of the National Guard were killed this Wednesday in a shooting near the White House, in which a person who is in critical condition was arrested.
"It is with great sadness that we can confirm that both members of the West Virginia National Guard who were shot today in Washington DC have passed away from their injuries," announced Patrick Morrisey, governor of West Virginia, the victims' state.
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The shots were fired on the corner of 17th Street and I Street, in Northwest Washington, a few steps from the presidential residence. Law enforcement responded quickly and ordered passersby to take shelter in nearby buildings. The local Police announced shortly after that the attacker was arrested and that the area is cordoned off. The two agents and the aggressor were taken to hospitals, announced U.S. President Donald Trump, who is at his mansion in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, for the Thanksgiving holiday. "The animal that shot the two national guardsmen, both seriously wounded and now in separate hospitals, is also seriously wounded, but, despite everything, will pay a very high price," Trump declared on his Truth Social network before the victims died. According to witnesses at the crime scene, two shots were heard and people began to run. "We saw two stretchers being taken away in an ambulance, In one of them there was a man in military clothing, I hope he is well," Mohammed El-Katabi, a man from Atlanta who is in Washington visiting a friend, told EFE. "When the ambulances left, helicopters began to fly overhead and there were many police officers," he added. The National Guard was deployed in Washington last August by order of Trump with the argument of combating crime in the city, one of the most violent in the country.Initially, the capital's mayor, Democrat Muriel Bowser, opposed the deployment, arguing that the local police had achieved a decrease in homicides, but then Trump praised the local government, assuring that they decided to cooperate with federal forces.
A federal judge ruled last week that the deployment of National Guard troops in the capital is illegal and that the Government must withdraw them before December 11.
