The suspect in the fatal shooting of 2 Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night has been identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago.
Rodriguez allegedly shot and killed the victims — a couple about to become engaged, according to Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. — as they were leaving the museum, which is located in the heart of the U.S. capital. According to police and video from the scene, he shouted “free, free Palestine” as he was being taken into custody.
Israel’s foreign ministry identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Milgrim was an American who grew up in the Kansas City area, graduated from the University of Kansas and earned a master’s degree at American University, her father said. Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog said Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen.
Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said authorities believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect who is now in custody.
What we know about the shooting scene
The suspect had been seen “pacing back and forth outside of the museum” before he approached a group of four people, “produced a handgun” and fatally shot the two victims, Smith said at a news conference. He entered the museum right after the shooting and museum security arrested him, according to Smith.
“The suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered,” Smith said, adding that he “implied that he committed the offense.”
The suspect chanted “free, free Palestine” while he was being arrested, video showed.
“Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence,” Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, said in a post on social media, adding that the suspect was being interviewed by D.C. police in conjunction with the FBI.
The shooting was being investigated as a hate crime, a law enforcement source said.
What we know about the suspect’s background
The suspect didn’t appear in an initial search of crime databases and wasn’t on law enforcements’ radar, Metropolitan Police said.
The suspect was from Chicago, and a large law enforcement presence blocked off roads in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood Thursday morning as officers executed a search believed to be connected to the shooting, CBS News Chicago reported. The FBI confirmed their Chicago field office is conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activity” in that area.
CBS News identified an X account belonging to the suspect. It has a history of posts about pro-Palestine activism, frustration with the media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, inflammatory posts about Israel and discussion of violence for political gain.
The Chicago-based American Osteopathic Information Association (AOIA) said in a statement that he was an employee at the not-for-profit trade association, which focuses on advancing IT use in osteopathic medicine.
“We were shocked and saddened to learn that an AOIA employee has been arrested as a suspect in this horrific crime,” said the president and the CEO of the American Osteopathic Association, or AOA, which represents more than 197,000 osteopathic physicians and osteopathic medical students.
“Both the AOIA and AOA stand ready to cooperate with the investigation in any way we can,” said the statement from AOA president Teresa Hubka and CEO Kathleen Creason. “As a physician organization dedicated to protecting the health and sanctity of human life, we believe in the rights of all persons to live safely without fear of violence.”
His LinkedIn account says he had worked for AOIA since July 2024 as an administrative specialist. Prior to that, Rodriguez worked as an Oral History Researcher at The HistoryMakers, where, according to a now-removed biography page, he prepared “detailed research outlines and biographies of accomplished leaders in the African American community.”
The police and the FBI were combing through the suspect’s social media, and electronic devices belonging to the suspect have been seized, according to a law enforcement source.
No details on the gun purchase or legality of the weapon were known as of early Thursday morning.
,
Pat Milton and
contributed to this report.
