By Jasper Ward and Emily Rose
WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – FBI and police investigators on Thursday pored over apparent writings and political affiliations of a man arrested as the lone suspect in the fatal shooting of a pair of Israel embassy aides outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.
The Chicago-born suspect, Elias Rodriguez, 30, 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.
Officials said he was heard chanting “Free Palestine” after he was taken into custody.
The two victims struck by gunfire and killed were identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, a young couple about to become engaged to be married.
Friends and members of advocacy groups they belonged to said the pair were committed to building bridges between Arabs and Jews in hopes of ending bloodshed in the Middle East.
After the shooting, Israeli embassies around the world immediately stepped up security.
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.”
FBI Director Kash Patel called the bloodshed an “act of terror,” although U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters that authorities believe the suspect acted alone.
Israel has faced sustained international condemnation for its escalating Gaza military offensive, while Jewish advocacy groups have warned of a rise in antisemitic incidents globally.
Investigators also delved into apparent political affiliations of the suspect, who worked for a healthcare nonprofit and was believed to have had past ties to far-left groups.
According to an account by Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith, a man shot at a group of four people with a handgun, hitting both the victims. He was seen pacing outside the museum prior to the shooting, little more than a mile (2 km) from the White House.
“Once in handcuffs, the suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered, and he implied that he committed the offense,” Smith said, adding that he had had no previous contact with police.
FBI agents were seen at his apartment in Chicago on Thursday, where law enforcement blocked off the street.
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 jewelry designer.
SUSPECT’S BACKGROUND
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.
“We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it,” the organization said.
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. ANSWER did not immediately respond to email and phone messages.
Rodriguez worked at the healthcare nonprofit American Osteopathic Information Association, the organization confirmed in a statement expressing sympathy for the victims.
“We were shocked and saddened to learn that an AOIA employee has been arrested as a suspect in this horrific crime,” the statement said.
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 reared in Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago with an English degree, the deleted page said. He previously worked as a content writer for commercial and noncommercial technology firms, the page said.
U.S. President Donald Trump condemned the shooting.
“These horrible D.C. 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 shooting is likely to fuel polarization in the United States over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Conservative supporters of Israel led by Trump have branded pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic. His administration has detained protesters without charge and cut off funding to elite U.S. universities that have permitted demonstrations.
VICTIMS PLANNED TO GET ENGAGED
Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., told reporters that Lischinsky had bought an engagement ring and planned to propose to Milgrim next week during a trip to Jerusalem.
The German-Israeli Society said Lischinsky had grown up in Bavaria and spoke fluent German.
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.”
(Reporting by Jasper Ward, Emily Rose, Andrew Goudsward, Julia Harte, Joseph Tanfani, Karen Freifeld, Ryan Patrick Jones, Daniel Trotta, Matt Spetalnick and Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Hatem Maher and James Mackenzie in Jerusalem, Tom Polansek in Chicago and Rachel More in Berlin; Writing by Joseph Ax and Steve Gorman; Editing by Howard Goller)
