A gunman shot dead two Israeli embassy staffers on Wednesday night as they were leaving the Capital Jewish Museum in downtown Washington D.C. The victims, named as Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinksy, had been attending an event at the museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) advocacy group.
“Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” Israeli embassy spokesperson, Tal Naim Cohen, wrote on X. “We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel’s representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States.”
The event at the museum was advertised as the annual AJC Young Diplomats reception for promoting coalitions in the Middle East. On the AJC’s website, it says it backs Israel and fights antisemitism.
Police have identified the suspect as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago. He was spotted “pacing back and forth outside of the museum,” according to Pamela Smith, the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. While addressing journalists at a press conference in the wake of the shooting, she said the suspect “approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire striking both of our decedents.”
Diplomatic sources have told the Reuters and AFP news agencies that Lischinksy had a German passport. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called the attack “despicable,” while Donald Trump posted online that “Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA.”
Speaking to the BBC, American Jewish Committee board member Jojo Kalin said that after the incident, the shooter walked into the museum. Kalin offered him some water before he “whips out his red Jordanian keffiyeh and he hells ‘Free Palestine!’” she said. “It’s deeply ironic that what we were discussing was bridge building and then we were all hit over the head with such hatred.”
Katie Kalisher, an eyewitness, told the BBC that “at around 9:07 p.m., we heard gun shots, then a guy came in [to the museum] looking really distressed, and we thought that he just needed help and shelter.”
“People were calming him down, bringing him water, taking care of him – little did they know that he was someone who had executed people in cold blood. He was the shooter,” Yoni Kalin, another eyewitness, told the BBC.
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Rodriguez is currently being questioned in police custody.