▶ Watch Video: Chicago man appears in court in murder of Israeli Embassy staffers in D.C.
The suspect in the fatal shooting of 2 Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night has been identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago.
He was charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree murder, murder of foreign officials, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. All are felonies, and the murder charges carry up to life in prison or the death penalty, if he is convicted.
Rodriguez allegedly shot and killed the victims — a couple about to become engaged, according to Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. — as they were leaving the museum, which is located in the heart of the U.S. capital. According to police and video from the scene, he shouted “free, free Palestine” as he was being taken into custody.
Israel’s foreign ministry identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Milgrim was an American who grew up in the Kansas City area, graduated from the University of Kansas and earned a master’s degree at American University, her father said. Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog said Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen.
The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime and “an act of terrorism,” and more charges could come, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said during a news conference Thursday afternoon. Authorities have said the attack was targeted.
What happened at the shooting scene
The suspect had been seen “pacing back and forth outside of the museum” before he approached a group of four people, “produced a handgun” and fatally shot the two victims, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said during a news conference.
According to charging documents, video shows that after the suspect shot the couple, he walked closer to them and fired “several more times.” A total of 21 rounds were fired from a 9 mm firearm.
“The suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered,” Smith said.
Federal officials traced the weapon and say records show it was purchased by Rodriguez on March 6, 2020, in Illinois. The handgun was purchased legally, according to a person briefed on the investigation.
Once officers arrived at the museum, Rodriguez asked to speak with police and told them, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed,” according to the charging documents. Rodriguez was then taken into custody.
The suspect chanted “free, free Palestine” while he was being arrested, video showed.
“Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence,” Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, said in a post on social media, adding that the suspect was being interviewed by D.C. police in conjunction with the FBI.
Leiter told reporters that the suspect had been inside the the event earlier in the evening, before being escorted out.
“He was inside the event, he walked around inside the event,” Leiter said in remarks in Hebrew. “We’re not sure exactly what he said while inside the event, but it was enough that he was escorted out of the event. He then went outside and waited for the Israelis to leave, and shot them. Three additional people were able to save themselves and get away.”
A woman who attended the event, Katie Kalisher, told CBS News that she encountered the alleged shooter right after hearing gunfire.
“Then this man comes in … but he was covered in rain and just looking really distressed and scared,” Kalisher told “CBS Mornings.” “We were comforting him because we thought that he was just somebody out in the street looking for a safe place to stay because he heard some gunshots.”
She said she talked to him to try to help him relax. “I asked him, ‘So, do you like the museum?’ And he’s kind of playing dumb with me,” she said about the interaction. “He goes, ‘Oh, what kind of museum is this?’ I told him, ‘It’s a Jewish museum.’ He asked, ‘Do you think that’s why they did this attack’ … referring to the rounds that we heard.”
She said she told him she didn’t think so and asked if he was OK. Then, she said, “He reaches into his bag and pulls out a keffiyeh and says, ‘I did it. I did it for Gaza.’ And, just starts shouting, ‘Free Palestine.'”
What we know about the suspect’s background
The suspect didn’t appear in an initial search of crime databases and wasn’t on law enforcements’ radar, Metropolitan Police said.
The suspect was from Chicago, and a large law enforcement presence blocked off roads in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood Thursday morning as officers executed a search believed to be connected to the shooting, CBS News Chicago reported. The FBI confirmed their Chicago field office is conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activity” in that area.
CBS News Chicago Investigators reported that Rodriguez attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, graduating in spring of 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
CBS News identified an X account belonging to the suspect. It has a history of posts about pro-Palestine activism, frustration with the media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, inflammatory posts about Israel and discussion of violence for political gain.
People interviewed who knew Rodriguez told investigators that he had been known to be outraged and rattled by the 2023 killing of a 6-year-old boy, Wadee Alfayoumi, in Plainfield, Illinois. The family’s landlord was later convicted of murder and hate crime charges for attacking the boy, which prosecutors said was motivated by anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate. Rodriguez has a photo of the boy in the window in his Chicago residence and was described to investigators by people who knew that Rodriquez felt a need for vengeance for Wadee’s death. It is unclear if he knew the boy.
Rodriguez worked at the Chicago-based American Osteopathic Information Association, a nonprofit trade association.
“We were shocked and saddened to learn that an AOIA employee has been arrested as a suspect in this horrific crime,” said the president and the CEO of the American Osteopathic Association, which represents more than 197,000 osteopathic physicians and osteopathic medical students.
“Both the AOIA and AOA stand ready to cooperate with the investigation in any way we can,” said the statement from AOA president Teresa Hubka and CEO Kathleen Creason. “As a physician organization dedicated to protecting the health and sanctity of human life, we believe in the rights of all persons to live safely without fear of violence.”
The suspect’s LinkedIn account says he had worked for AOIA since July 2024 as an administrative specialist. Prior to that, he worked as an Oral History Researcher at The HistoryMakers, where, according to a now-removed biography page, he prepared “detailed research outlines and biographies of accomplished leaders in the African American community.”
The police and the FBI were combing through the suspect’s social media, and electronic devices belonging to the suspect have been seized, according to a law enforcement source.