WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE FATAL SHOOTING OF TWO ISRAELI EMBASSY STAFF IN WASHINGTON D.C.

Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. have been fatally shot while leaving an event at a Jewish museum.

The suspect yelled “Free, free Palestine” when he was arrested following the deadly attack, that took place at around 9 p. m. Wednesday police said.

The attack is being seen by officials in Israel and the U.S. as the latest in a growing wave of antisemitism after Israel ramped up its offensive in the Gaza Strip. President Donald Trump has condemned the “horrible” D.C. killings and offered his condolences to the families of the victims.

Click here for the latest updates on the shooting.

Here's what we know about the double killing:

What happened?

The two victims, who were a couple, were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum around 9.15 p.m. Wednesday night when suspect Elias Rodriguez allegedly approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said.

A witness reported that Rodriguez t was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting. He walked into the museum following the shooting and was detained by event security, Smith said.

When he was taken into custody, the suspect began chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” according to Smith.

She said law enforcement did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the community.

Who is the suspect?

The suspect has been identified as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago.

The Justice Department charged him Thursday with with federal murder charges.

At least one of the charges — using a firearm to commit murder — carries the possibility of the death penalty. He is also charged with first degree murder, murdering foreign officials, and using a firearm during a violent crime.

Metropolitan Police Department chief Pamela Smith recounted that he was handcuffed following the Wednesday night shooting, Rodriguez disclosed where he had discarded the handgun, which was recovered by police. The suspect also “implied that he committed the offense,” the police chief added.

Video footage shows the suspect chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” repeatedly, as he was arrested by police and led away from the museum.

Police believed that Rodriguez was the sole suspect at the time of the shooting. He had no prior criminal record and was not previously known to law enforcement.

According to a LinkedIn profile, Rodriguez is a resident of Avondale in Chicago and a graduate of the University of Illinois. Since July 2024, he has worked as an administrative specialist for the Chicago-based American Osteopathic Association.

The suspect had a “brief association” with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which advocated on behalf of Palestinians, the group confirmed in a post on X.

Rodriguez was being interviewed early Thursday by D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department as well as the FBI. The U.S. attorney in Washington will prosecute the case.

Who are the victims?

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.

“Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives,” the embassy said later in a statement. “The entire embassy staff [are] heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss.”

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the young couple was about to be engaged, saying the man had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

“The ironic part is that we were worried for our daughter’s safety in Israel,” Robert Milgrim said of his daughter to The New York Times. “But she was murdered three days before going.”

The pair had been attending an American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum, described online as a “Young Diplomats Reception”. The event was intended to bring together young Jewish professionals between the ages of 22 and 45.

Witnesses to the attack

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said.

Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, “Free Palestine,’” Kalin said.

“This event was about humanitarian aid,” Kalin said. “How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.”

The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the alleged gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back.

What is Israel's reaction?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that he was “shocked” by the “horrific, antisemitic” shooting.

“We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel,” he said in a statement.

Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948.

The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with east Jerusalem as its capital — lands Israel captured in the 1967 war.

However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.

Israel's new campaign in Gaza

The shooting comes as Israel has launched a new campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a war that has set tensions aflame across the wider Middle East. The war began with the Palestinian militant group Hamas coming out of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, to kill 1,200 people and take some 250 hostages back to the coastal enclave.

In the time since, Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians.

The fighting has displaced 90 per cent of the territory’s roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape. Aid groups ran out of food to distribute weeks ago, and most of the population of around 2.3 million relies on communal kitchens whose supplies are nearly depleted.

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2025-05-22T07:33:38Z