Washington shooting suspect charged with murder, told police he ‘did it for Gaza’
Elias Rodriguez shot victims in the back at close range, court documents say; FBI investigating his apparent writings and far-left political affiliations
WASHINGTON — Elias Rodriguez, the man charged with killing two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, approached police on the scene after the shooting and told them, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to a court document filed on Thursday.
Rodriguez allegedly murdered Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night. Lischinsky and Milgrim were a couple, and Lischinsky was planning to propose in Jersualem next week.
The US Justice Department said Rodriguez has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, as well as other charges, including the murder of foreign officials.
An affidavit filed by an FBI agent in support of the criminal complaint said that as police escorted Rodriguez from the building, he shouted, “Free Palestine.”
The document said police reviewed security footage showing Rodriguez walking past the victims outside the museum, then turning, pulling a firearm from his waistband, and shooting them in the back.
After the victims fell to the ground, he approached them and fired several more times, as Milgrim attempted to crawl away from him. Milgrim then sat up while Rodriguez reloaded, and he shot her again, the video shows, according to the affidavit.
Investigators recovered 21 empty shell cases and a 9mm handgun from the scene that matched a firearm Rodriguez purchased in Illinois in 2020. He flew from Chicago to Virginia with the firearm in his checked baggage, the affidavit said. He had declared the firearm for the flight.
Rodriguez later told detectives that he admired Aaron Bushnell, an anti-Israel activist who self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy last year in protest, calling Bushnell a “martyr.” Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, also said he had bought a ticket to the event at the museum three hours before it started.
“This brutal, antisemitic violence has no place in our country or anywhere in civilization,” said US Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “We will follow the facts and secure the most severe possible punishment for the perpetrator of this heinous crime, which robbed two wonderful young people of a bright future together.”
The case is being investigated by the FBI and Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, and is being prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said the attacker was inside the event before the attack.
“He milled around inside the event. We still don’t know exactly what he said, but he said enough that they removed him,” Leiter said at a press briefing at the scene of the attack. “He went outside, waited for embassy workers to come out, and shot them.”
Three others escaped the shooting unharmed, Leiter said.
“The person who shot these two young people dead last night shouted ‘Free, free Palestine.’ This was done in the name of a political agenda to eradicate the State of Israel,” he said. “The State of Israel is now fighting a war on seven fronts. This is the eighth front in the war to demonize, to delegitimize, to eradicate the right of the State of Israel.”
FBI and police investigators are poring over apparent writings and political affiliations of the suspect.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino posted on social media that investigators were “aware of certain writings allegedly authored by the suspect” and hoped to soon have updates regarding their authenticity.
Bongino’s statement appeared to refer to a manifesto signed with Rodriguez’s name that was posted to an anonymous X account on Wednesday night shortly before the shooting.
Posted with the title “Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home,” it condemned Israel’s killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians since the October 2023 Hamas attacks, and discussed the morality of “armed” action.
FBI Director Kash Patel called the bloodshed an “act of terror,” although Bondi told reporters that authorities believe the suspect acted alone.
Investigators are also delving into the apparent political affiliations of the suspect, who worked for a healthcare nonprofit and was believed to have had past ties to far-left groups.
At his first appearance in court on Thursday, the suspect waived his right to a detention hearing, and a preliminary hearing in the case was set for June 18.
Rodriguez said little during the proceeding except to answer, “I do” to questions from a federal magistrate judge about whether he understood his rights.
FBI agents were seen at his apartment in Chicago on Thursday, where law enforcement blocked off the street.
Rodriguez was once affiliated with a far-left group in Chicago, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, according to a post from the group on X. The group said that Rodriguez had a brief association with a PSL branch that ended in 2017 and that they knew of no contact with him in more than seven years.
Rodriguez was also identified in a 2018 local news report as a member of the Chicago branch of a national group called ANSWER, an acronym for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, which has organized demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians.
Rodriguez worked at the healthcare nonprofit American Osteopathic Information Association, the organization confirmed in a statement expressing sympathy for the victims.
He had also worked as an oral history researcher at The HistoryMakers, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving African American stories, according to a now-deleted biography on the group’s website.
Rodriguez was born and raised in Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago with an English degree. He previously worked as a content writer for commercial and noncommercial technology firms, the deleted page said.
The Times of Israel Community.