A National Guardsman was shot in the leg near the U.S. Capitol late Sunday after a suspect pulled a gun during a street fight and pointed it at the troops, underscoring the risks facing Guardsmen still deployed in Washington.

The shooting erupted shortly after 11 p.m. in the Capitol Hill neighborhood when National Guardsmen inside a van spotted a fight and moved to break it up. CBS News reported that the suspect drew a firearm, ignored orders to drop it, and aimed the weapon at the Guardsmen, who returned fire.

Both the Guardsman and the suspect were hit in the leg. Interim D.C. police chief Jeffrey Carroll told reporters at an early Monday news conference that the wounds were not considered life-threatening. Both men were taken to area hospitals for treatment.

Carroll laid out the sequence clearly. Guardsmen saw the fight start, the suspect produced a gun, troops ordered him to put it down, he pointed it their way, and they fired back. One Guardsman went down with a leg wound. The suspect took a round in the leg as well.

No names for the wounded Guardsman or the suspect in Sunday’s shooting have been released. Arrest or charging details from that night also remain undisclosed.

Trump’s crime crackdown put Guardsmen on D.C. streets

President Trump ordered the National Guard into Washington more than a year earlier as part of a national push against violent crime. That deployment placed service members in neighborhoods where street fights and armed confrontations are not rare.

Sunday’s gunfire was not the first time Guardsmen on that mission have come under fire. In a separate November 2025 ambush near the White House, two National Guardsmen were shot. One was killed. The other was left critically wounded.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, faces more than a dozen federal counts tied to that earlier attack. The charges include murder of a person assisting an officer of the United States and discharging a firearm during a violent crime that caused death. Those counts carry the possibility of the death penalty. He has pleaded not guilty.

Political pushback against Trump’s law-and-order approach has been steady, yet the need for extra security in the capital keeps showing up in the casualty reports. Supporters have continued to back the president’s hard line even when critics try to change the subject.

Democrat labels deadly ambush an “unfortunate accident”

The November attack left Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe fighting for his life and killed his fellow Guardsman, Sarah Beckstrom. Both were shot in the head.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem did not say much about what happened.

"They shot our National Guardsmen in the head."

Rep. Bennie Thompson struck a different tone. The Washington Free Beacon documented Thompson describing the National Guard shootings as an “unfortunate accident.” That framing landed after an ambush-style attack that killed one American service member and nearly killed another.

President Trump later said Wolfe was making “amazing” progress. The contrast between an execution-style shooting and the word “accident” needs no extra commentary.

Trump has kept his focus on personnel and policy execution inside his own circle, shutting down speculation about staff changes while the security mission in Washington continues.

West Virginia Guardsman still fighting after November attack

Wolfe remains in serious condition. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey updated the public on signs of responsiveness after the head wound.

"We were told that Andrew was asked if he could hear the nurse, who asked the question, to give a thumbs up, and he did respond, and we were told that he also wiggled his toes... So we take that a positive sign."

Morrisey added that the family is enduring a hard stretch.

"These are wonderful people, and the family is going through a very difficult situation right now as Andrew fights to survive."

Just The News carried the governor’s account of those small but encouraging movements. Wolfe’s mother has asked for prayers while her son continues the fight.

Beckstrom did not survive her wounds from the same ambush. Two separate shootings involving National Guard troops in the capital, one fatal, one leaving a Guardsman with a fresh leg wound, have now stacked up on the same deployment.

Former President Obama has spent recent weeks attacking the current administration’s enforcement choices on other fronts, including defending allies caught in citizenship scrutiny, while the ground-level cost of weak street control keeps landing on Guardsmen.

Same city, same mission, fresh gunfire

Sunday’s confrontation followed the same basic pattern the Guard was sent to deter: disorder on a public street, a gun produced in seconds, and troops forced to shoot to stop the threat. Carroll’s timeline leaves little room for confusion about who pointed a weapon at whom.

The Guardsmen were already inside the van when the fight broke out. They did not go looking for a gun battle. They answered a visible disturbance, gave a clear command, and took fire for it. One of them left Capitol Hill with a bullet wound for the effort.

Trump’s decision to put the Guard on D.C. streets came after years of rising disorder that local leaders failed to contain. The November deaths and the fresh Sunday night shooting show the threat did not vanish when the troops arrived. It met them there.

Foreign-policy noise and cable-news side shows continue in other arenas, including negotiations overseas that draw constant attention, yet the immediate danger to American Guardsmen remains on the streets of the nation’s capital.

Service members following lawful orders should not have to catch rounds in the leg, or worse, because city streets still belong to armed suspects. The deployment exists for a reason, and Sunday night supplied another one.