The Metropolitan Police Department responded to the scene of the shooting at 17th and I Street alongside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
FBI Director Kash Patel said at a press conference Wednesday evening that the two National Guard members are in critical condition. There were conflicting reports earlier Wednesday about their statuses.
Jeffrey Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), said at the press conference that a suspect, who has been shot and is hospitalized, is in custody.
Patel added that the incident will be treated as an assault on a federal law enforcement officer and that the FBI will lead the investigation alongside the ATF, the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
The bureau will also collaborate with Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and the District's Metropolitan Police Department, Patel said.
Bowser said at the presser that the shooting was "targeted," and Carroll said that based on video of the incident, there are no other suspects.
President Trump immediately condemned the shooting.
"The animal that shot the two National Guardsmen, with both being critically wounded, and now in two separate hospitals, is also severely wounded, but regardless, will pay a very steep price. God bless our Great National Guard, and all of our Military and Law Enforcement," the president wrote in a Truth Social post.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later said that Trump asked him to authorize 500 more National Guard troops to be deployed to Washington.
"This will only stiffen our resolve to ensure that we make Washington, D.C., safe and beautiful," Hegseth told reporters on Wednesday during his trip to the Dominican Republic.
"The drop in crime has been historic. The increase in safety and security has been historic. But if criminals want to conduct things like this, violence against America's best, we will never back down. President Trump will never back down. That's why the American people elected him," he added.
Last week, a federal judge in the nation's capital blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to the District. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb has put her ruling on hold until Dec. 11 and the administration has appealed.
Read the full report at thehill.com.
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