Suspect charged with first degree murder of two Israeli embassy staffers shot in Washington
WASHINGTON: A suspect has been charged with first-degree murder of two Israeli embassy staffers who were shot as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in the US capital.
FBI and police investigators on Thursday (May 22) poured over apparent writings and political affiliations Chicago-born Elias Rodriquez, a 30 year old who has been identified as the lone suspect in the fatal shooting.
He is accused of opening fire on a group of people on Wednesday night as they left an event for young diplomats hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that supports Israel and confronts antisemitism, according to its website.
In addition to first-degree murder, Rodriguez was charged in a criminal complaint with murder of foreign officials, causing death with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence.
Officials said he was heard chanting "Free Palestine" after he was taken into custody.
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.
"In the wake of an act people look for a text to fix its meaning so here's an attempt," the document read. "The atrocities committed by Israelis against Palestine defy description and defy quantification."
TWO VICTIMS TRYING TO PROMOTE RECONCILIATION
The victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were locally employed staff, the Israeli foreign ministry said. They were trying to promote reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, separate advocacy groups each belonged to said.
Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the US, told reporters the young man killed had "purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem".
The German-Israeli Society said Lischinsky had grown up in Bavaria and spoke fluent German.
"We remember him as an open-minded, intelligent and deeply committed person whose interest in German-Israeli relations and ways to achieve peaceful coexistence in the Middle East brightened the environment around him," said the society's president, Volker Beck.
Tech2Peace, an advocacy group training young Palestinians and Israelis and promoting dialogue between them, said Milgrim was an active volunteer who "brought people together with empathy and purpose".
"Her dedication to building a better future was evident in everything she did," it said. "Her voice and spirit will be profoundly missed."
After the incident, a witness, Katie Kalisher, 29, said she was among people in the museum who were chatting to a man who entered looking very scared after gunshots were heard outside, when he suddenly pulled out a keffiyeh scarf.
"He says, 'I did it. I did it for Gaza, free, free Palestine. And he's chanting this. And then suddenly the police come in and they arrest him,' said Kalisher, a jewellery designer.
'But he didn't even have the Palestinian keffiyeh. He had the Jordanian keffiyeh. So I think he's a really confused person," she said.
POLITICAL BACKDROP
President Donald Trump condemned the shooting. "These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!" he said in a message on Truth Social. "Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his heart ached for the families of the victims, "whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer".
"We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel," he said on X, adding that both "must be fought to the utmost".
The shootings are likely to fuel polarisation in the United States over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Conservative Israel supporters led by Trump have branded pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic, and his administration has detained protesters without charge and cut off funding to elite US universities that have permitted demonstrations.
After the shooting, Israeli embassies around the world immediately stepped up security.
RISING ANTISEMITISM AND ANTI-ARAB HATE
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the shooting was a direct result of "toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world" since the attack on Israel by Hamas militants in October 2023 that prompted the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
Rights advocates have noted both rising antisemitism and anti-Arab hate in the US since then.
Such incidents have included an unsuccessful plot to attack a New York Jewish centre, an arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's residence and attacks on Florida businesses perceived as pro-Israel.
Incidents linked to anti-Palestinian prejudice have included the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois, the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas, a New York City assault by a pro-Israeli mob that chanted "Death to Arabs", and a violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters in California.
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