CHARLES TOWN, W.V. – EXCLUSIVE: The Thanksgiving Eve shooting that has left one West Virginia National Guard 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.

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«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 … 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 came again 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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Travelers are greeted by a West Virginia welcome sign after crossing the East River Mountain Tunnel on I-77 in Princeton, West Virginia.  (Charlie Creitz/Fox News Digital)

«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 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 that the 29-year-old Afghan «was not even supposed to be here.»

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West Virginia GOP Chairman Del. Josh Holstein’s official state portrait. (West Virginia House of Delegates)

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 an 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.

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«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.

The Trump administration harshly criticized the United Kingdom over its handling of mass immigration and the long-running rape gang scandal that has victimized white girls across the country.

In a statement posted to X, the U.S. State Department called on its Europe-based diplomats to track the effects of rampant immigration. While the statement zeroed in on the U.K., it also highlighted similar problems in Germany and Sweden.

«The State Department instructed U.S. embassies to report on the human rights implications and public safety impacts of mass migration,» the statement read. «Officials will also report policies that punish citizens who object to continued mass migration and document crimes and human rights abuses committed by people of a migration background.»

The statement referenced the so-called «grooming gangs» made up of mostly Pakistani men who have victimized young girls for decades, with little action taken by the government.

«In the United Kingdom, thousands of girls have been victimized in Rotherham, Oxford, and Newcastle by grooming gangs involving migrant men,» the State Department said. «Many girls were left to suffer unspeakable abuse for years before authorities stepped in.»

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A day after the statement, GB News reported that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters at the G20 in South Africa that the national inquiry would «leave no stone unturned.»

The State Department’s warning comes weeks after several victims — who were members of the independent inquiry — resigned over what they claimed was a continuation of a cover-up. 

One abuse survivor, Ellie Reynolds, told cable channel GMB that the existence of grooming gangs has been «brushed under the carpet» and that «our voices have been silenced.»

She was supported by fellow survivor Fiona Goddard, who was groomed from the age of 14, and said that when she spoke out for help she was dismissed as a «child prostitute» by authorities.

Goddard resigned to protest the cover-up, saying members of the grooming gangs near Bradford were in the «vast majority … Pakistani men.»

Successive governments — both Conservative and Labour — have been dealing with the revelations for years that a number of grooming gangs, often consisting mostly of men of South Asian or Pakistani heritage, have sexually exploited girls for decades across the north of England.

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A British Union Jack flies from a souvenir stall near the Houses of Parliament in London, UK, on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Prior to the inquiry, Starmer had commissioned a national audit led by Baroness Louise Casey earlier this year. 

On the hot-button issue of the backgrounds of the criminals, the Casey report stated in part, «We found that the ethnicity of perpetrators is shied away from and is still not recorded for two-thirds of perpetrators, so we are unable to provide any accurate assessment from the nationally collected data.»

It continued: «Despite the lack of a full picture in the national data sets, there is enough evidence available in local police data in three police force areas which we examined which show disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds amongst suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation, as well as in the significant number of perpetrators of Asian ethnicity identified in local reviews and high-profile child sexual exploitation prosecutions across the country, to at least warrant further examination.»

A woman poses at her home in England, January 8, 2025. She was 14 when she was sexually abused by a grooming gang in Rochdale, England. (Hollie Adams/Reuters)

Her audit also identified other perpetrators, including White British, European, African or Middle Eastern individuals.

The results of the audit produced 12 recommendations to the government, which have been implemented, including a national inquiry to «direct local investigations and hold institutions to account for past failures.» 

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But the Starmer government has been set back by a failure to appoint a chair for the inquiry, and it has faced resignations as critics have accused the Labour government of covering it up for political reasons.

Alan Mendoza, founder of the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital that «successive governments» have allowed «gangs of largely South Asian Muslims to target white British girls, claiming, «the Labour government doesn’t want to be seen as stigmatizing demographics or potentially losing votes.»

«I hope that the inquiry will focus more specifically on the real issue plaguing the U.K. over the last 20 years,» Mendoza added.

A woman poses with a sign as members of the public queue to enter a council meeting during a protest calling for justice for victims of sexual abuse and grooming gangs, outside the council offices at City Center on Jan. 20, 2025 in Oldham, England.  (Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

The point person for the government’s inquiry is Labour member of Parliament Jess Phillips, who has served as the parliamentary undersecretary of state for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls since July 2024.

However, Phillips is facing heavy scrutiny over how she’s handling the set-up of the inquiry.

Asked in Parliament about the nature of the inquiry and whether it will address the perpetrators’ ethnicity, she vowed to be transparent.

«There is absolutely no sense that ethnicity will be buried away,» Phillips said. «Every single time that there is an apparently needless delay — even though it took seven months to put in place chairs for both the COVID inquiry and the blood inquiry, and nobody moaned about that — it gets used to say that we want to cover something up. That is the misinformation I am talking about. It will not cover things up. We are taking time to ensure that that can never happen.»

Elon Musk weighed in on the matter in a series of X statements earlier this year, stating that Phillips, was a «rape genocide apologist» and the world was witnessing «the worst mass crime against the people of Britain ever.» 

Philips told the BBC that his comments were «disinformation» and «endangering» her, but said it was nothing compared to what the victims of the abuse had faced. 

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Commentators say the challenge for the government now is to find those credible and willing to bring justice and lasting change so it won’t happen again.

Fox News Digital reached out to Phillips’ office but received no response.
 

Durante siglos, la imponente familia Habsburgo marcó el pulso de Europa. Entre el siglo XIII y el siglo XIX, ostentaron el poder como reyes de Alemania, archiduques de Austria y, desde el siglo XV, como emperadores del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, además de gobernar la monarquía española entre 1516 y 1700.

A la par, una singularidad física —la prominente “mandíbula Habsburgo”— se instaló en la historia, consecuencia directa de una política familiar donde los matrimonios entre parientes consolidaron el poder, pero también sellaron el destino biológico de la dinastía.

De acuerdo con Smithsonian Magazine, la malformación se relacionó con la estrategia de los Habsburgo de mantener el poder a través de matrimonios entre familiares directos. Las alianzas familiares incluyeron enlaces entre primos y tíos con sobrinas.

Los encargados de retratar a la dinastía no lograron ocultar el prognatismo mandibular. Algunos miembros, como Carlos II de España, experimentaron dificultades al comer o articular palabras. Charles V, emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, fue descrito en 1517 como “de rostro alargado y boca ladeada”.

De acuerdo con especialistas, citados por History Extra, los Habsburgo llevaron la práctica de la consanguinidad más lejos que otras casas reales europeas.

Según el historiador Martyn Rady, los matrimonios endogámicos favorecieron alianzas políticas y militares, pero generaron consecuencias biológicas severas. Solamente dos de los once matrimonios reales españoles entre 1516 y 1700 se efectuaron fuera del círculo familiar. La continuidad de estos enlaces provocó problemas de salud física y mental, así como deformidades.

Investigaciones recientes analizaron decenas de retratos y confirmaron una relación directa entre el grado de parentesco de los progenitores y la gravedad de las alteraciones maxilofaciales. El estudio de 2019, dirigido por el profesor Román Vilas de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, detalló que a mayor índice de consanguinidad, más pronunciada la deformidad mandibular.

El “coeficiente de consanguinidad” alcanzó valores extremos en Carlos II de España, con un índice de 0,254, cifra diez veces superior a la considerada elevada en hijos de primos hermanos.

El emperador Maximiliano I, su hija Margarita de Austria, Carlos I de España y Carlos II figuran como los casos más notorios de la mandíbula Habsburgo.

En ese sentido, Carlos II, apodado “El Hechizado”, padeció epilepsia, trastornos físicos y severa incapacidad para masticar debido a la malformación ósea. Su autopsia evidenció deterioro corporal extremo: corazón diminuto, pulmones dañados y cráneo con exceso de líquido.

En algunos registros, un enviado británico observó cómo Carlos II ingería alimentos “tragando todo entero”, ya que sus dientes no se encontraban alineados. Los trastornos digestivos y una lengua grande dificultaron la comunicación verbal. Su árbol genealógico ejemplifica el impacto acumulativo de generaciones de endogamia: la abuela materna también era su tía, y su madre resultó ser sobrina de su padre.

El final de la dinastía Habsburgo española se selló con la muerte de Carlos II en 1700, sin descendencia. Este deceso desencadenó una guerra de sucesión en Europa. De acuerdo con Martyn Rady, el linaje austríaco intentó heredar el trono español, pero la corona finalmente pasó a la casa francesa de los Borbones.

Marie Antoinette, hija de la emperatriz María Teresa y del emperador Francisco I, formó parte del linaje, aunque solo manifestó una pequeña alteración en el labio inferior. Las generaciones actuales de la familia Habsburgo continúan existiendo, pero la característica mandíbula desapareció como consecuencia de cambios en las prácticas matrimoniales.

Hoy, la historia de la mandíbula Habsburgo es símbolo de los riesgos biológicos de la consanguinidad, además de un recordatorio del costo humano de la política dinástica.

Habsburgo, consanguinidad y genética constituyen tres conceptos unidos en la crónica de una familia cuya ambición definió la política continental, pero cuyo legado se vio marcado por una clara señal biológica: la mandíbula de su linaje real.