On the evening of November 26, Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom were stationed outside the Farragut West Metro Station in Washington, DC. Both were members of the West Virginia National Guard. As part of Donald Trump’s attempt to transform Democratic-voting cities into war zones, they had been sent to the nation’s capital. The two young West Virginians were approached by a man who opened fire, shooting both of them. Wolfe was critically injured; Beckstrom was murdered.

The killing of twenty-year old Beckstrom was a heinous, senseless act of violence. Trump and his supporters, like politicians throughout US history, have cynically latched onto this tragedy to justify Trump’s decision to deploy American troops against American citizens in cities where their presence is unwelcome. And as the alleged shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was an Afghan refugee, the Trump White House has doubled down its xenophobic policies, promising to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.”

But the alleged shooter is not any ordinary immigrant. Lakanwal was brought to this country thanks to his work with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as part of what can only be described as a death squad. As horrific as the shooting was, it is not the symptom of the “American carnage” Trump falsely claims is laying siege to cities where the majority of Americans did not vote for him. Instead, the killings are part of a deep, systemic problem, one that is deeply inconvenient for political elites across the spectrum.