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EXCLUSIVE: The Thanksgiving Eve shooting that has left one West Virginia National Guard service member dead and another clinging to his life enraged top officials in Charleston, West Virginia — as one placed blame squarely on the disastrous 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and said his state is "one big small town" that is mourning together.
The suspect, Rahmahullah Lakanwal, reportedly worked with a CIA-operated unit that fought the Taliban on America’s behalf, Fox News Digital confirmed, which helped evacuate people during the fall of Kabul under then-President Joe Biden.
West Virginia Republican Party Chairman Josh Holstein told Fox News Digital Friday the news angered him, and that anger turned to devastation when Sarah Beckstrom of Summersville, West Virginia, succumbed to her wounds, and as Andrew Wolfe of Inwood, West Virginia, remains in critical condition.
"It’s just been a horrible tragedy here in West Virginia," said Holstein, who is also a state delegate from Boone County, West Virginia. "This doesn't happen for West Virginians very often and it's just such a deep tragedy."
"One of the things that I've I've said from the beginning is West Virginia is just one big small town," he said. "And folks come together in tragedy, in triumph, in everything. We come together and we celebrate, we mourn, always together."
Holstein said that in times like this political parties don’t matter, and that Mountaineers again came together after the shooting. West Virginia Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin to Republican Sens. Jim Justice and Shelley Moore Capito all offered similar heartfelt reactions.
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"West Virginians of all political sides of the aisle came together and just mourn(ed) and share a sense of deep grief, but not only grief, but gratitude for these folks, especially these these two young folks," he said. "And then yesterday, of course, with it being Thanksgiving, it was a somber reminder that not all of us all of us get together with our families on Thanksgiving."
"These two were at the time, both fighting for their life, and now one has since passed away," he said. "I, I just feel that West Virginians in particular have such a unique drive for service. You can see it in our numbers per capita on how many veterans we have compared to other states in the country. We're always willing and always able to serve each other and it's a it's a really a perfect description of who West Virginians are."
As reports came out about Lakanwal’s origins and background, that sentiment turned to fury, Holstein said, remarking the 29-year-old Afghan "was not even supposed to be here."
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Turning to the 2021 Afghan withdrawal during which Lakanwal found his way to the U.S., Holstein remarked that "when you create chaos, chaos follows."
"That Afghanistan withdrawal was complete debacle; complete chaos," he said. "And it led to people literally running and jumping on planes and coming to the United States as a result of it. It was complete chaos. There was not a deliberate system, irrespective and irregardless of what any of the administration officials of the past administration had said about it."
"It’s really just an indictment on our country's immigration system," he said. "We have an immigration system that puts other people first. It doesn't put American citizens first, it doesn't put the good of the country first. It puts other people from random places throughout the country."
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Holstein said President Donald Trump struck the right response when he pledged to crack down on third-world-country immigration and immigration from unstable governments.
"I think this is just yet again example one thousand of our need to focus more on merit-based immigration and vetting who comes into our country at all times," he said.
Asked whether he wants to see the West Virginia National Guard continue to deploy to Washington as part of Trump’s and U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro’s efforts to clean up crime, Holstein was undeterred.
"We can’t cower to people like this (Lakanwal). You can’t cower in tragedy," he said, adding that there are about 150 other guardsmen from his state serving in Washington.
"So, I hope to see everybody stay there and maybe even have some more folks come in from different places," he added.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman and Tessa Hoyos contributed to this report.
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