Purported manifesto of DC shooting suspect appears online

The purported manifesto of the suspected gunman in Washington’s Jewish museum shooting posted online Wednesday night defended using “armed action” to protest what he called the “genocide” being carried out against Palestinians in Gaza.

The statement, posted on the social media platform X at exactly 10 p.m. local time, less than an hour after the shooting, was signed by Elias Rodriguez, the name of the suspect arrested by police. It could have been a scheduled post or posted by a third party; its accuracy has not been verified.

Police named Rodriguez as the suspect responsible for murdering Israeli Embassy staff members Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim at point-blank range as they exited an event run by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum.

After the shooting, he walked into the museum, was detained by event security and began chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” according to video from the scene.

The approximately 900-word online statement mentions the high death toll in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and references US Air Force serviceman Aaron Bushnell — who died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington in February 2024 to protest the war — as on of those who “sacrificed themselves in the hopes of stopping the massacre.”

The statement also expresses dissatisfaction with American support for Israel, claiming that while public opinion has shifted against the Jewish state, “the American government has simply shrugged, they’ll do without public opinion then, criminalize it where they can, suffocate it with bland reassurances that they’re doing all they can to restrain Israel where it cannot criminalize protest outright.”

The writer points to mass protests and demonstrations against the war in the US and other Western cities, but notes that “thus far the rhetoric has not amounted to much.”

The essay ends with what appears to be a defense of “the morality of armed demonstration,” with the author claiming that his actions would have been morally justified even if taken in response to the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, which is when he says he became aware of the conflict. He expresses the belief that his actions will now be viewed by many Americans as “highly legible” and “the only sane thing to do.”

The manifesto was posted by an account rife with violent anti-Israel sentiment, including references to taking violent actions against Israelis and a “joke” about bombing The New York Times. It also includes messages in support of Hamas and Hezbollah. Several posts reference Chicago, where the suspected shooter was born and raised.

Israel launched its war against Hamas after the terror group’s October 7, 2023, massacre, during which some 5,000 terrorists from the Gaza Strip burst into southern Israel, carrying out a murderous rampage that claimed the lives of some 1,200 people in Israel, with another 251 people kidnapped and much of the area devastated. Most of the victims were civilians.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.