On May 21, two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum following a diplomatic event hosted by the American Jewish Committee. The suspect, Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, approached four people with a handgun outside the event and opened fire. Rodriguez was apprehended at the scene and shouted “Free, free Palestine” when he was arrested.
Lischinsky, a German-Israeli diplomat, and Milgrim, an American advocate for Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, were a couple planning to become engaged. DC police and the FBI are investigating the shooting as a potential hate crime or act of antisemitic terrorism.
The Guardian reported that Elias Rodriguez was being questioned early Thursday by the Metropolitan Police Department alongside FBI agents. The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is expected to lead the prosecution.
Public information on Rodriguez remains limited. His name appeared in a 2017 post on the website of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), referencing his participation in a protest at the home of then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel over the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.
However, the PSL distanced itself from Rodriguez in a statement posted to X: “We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL. He had a brief association with one branch of the organization, which ended in 2017. We have had no contact with him in over seven years. We condemn the shooting and have no connection to it.”
There is no evidence at this time that Rodriguez was in contact with or had been directed by Palestinian terrorist groups to carry out the shooting. However, “Free, free, Palestine,” which he shouted at the time of his arrest, is a common slogan among pro-Palestinian activists and malign actors connected to the cause. Further establishing Rodriguez’s possible motive for the shooting, Sky News reported that he told a witness he carried out the attack “for Gaza.”
An X account reportedly linked to Rodriguez, first identified by journalist Ken Klippenstein, contained a lengthy manifesto outlining the suspect’s justification for “armed action” against Israel. The account also promoted his presence on Bluesky, where his profile featured a banner image of Muhammad Chalaf Sahar Rajab and Hassan Muhammad Hassan Tamimi, two terrorists responsible for a deadly shooting attack in Tel Aviv on October 1 in which seven people were murdered.
Since the Hamas-led atrocities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Palestinian armed groups, their regional backers, and ideological supporters in the West have launched a calculated campaign of incitement against Israelis, Jews, and their allies. This effort is evidenced by Hamas’s increased production of propaganda videos subtitled in English, a notable departure from its prewar media habits.
Simultaneously, pro-Hamas demonstrators across American cities, university campuses, and European countries have adopted the symbols, rhetoric, and imagery traditionally seen in Gaza and the West Bank. Protestors have been observed glorifying figures such as Yahya Sinwar and Abu Obeida and donning paramilitary attire.
On May 22, Rodriguez was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and other crimes in a federal court.
