A soon-to-be-engaged Israeli couple were shot dead after attending an event inside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night.
Yaron Lischinsky, 28, and Sarah Milgram were identified as the two victims who were gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum, the Embassy of Israel to the U.S. wrote on X Thursday morning.
The young couple, who both worked at the Israeli embassy in the capital, were described as being “in the prime of their lives,” with their deaths leaving colleagues “heartbroken and devastated.”
Lischinsky had planned to propose to Milgrim during an upcoming trip to Jerusalem, Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., said before the victims were publicly identified. Lischinsky, who moved to the U.S. from Tel Aviv in November 2023, had bought the ring this week, Leiter added.
Elias Rodriguez, 30, was identified as the suspected gunman who police say opened fire on a group of four with a handgun outside the museum in the area of 3rd and F Street NW.
Shots rang out at about 9.15 p.m. when the group had left the American Jewish Committee’s ACCESS Young Diplomats Reception.
Lischinsky and Milgrim were unconscious and not breathing when first responders arrived at the scene, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a press conference.
Video footage shows Rodriguez repeatedly chanted “free, free Palestine” as police removed him from the museum in handcuffs.
Witnesses say that he could be seen walking around outside the museum in the moments leading up to the shooting. After opening fire, the gunman walked into the museum, where security detained him. The videos, taken by witnesses, show that he did not appear to resist arrest.
Authorities believe that Rodriguez acted alone. He had no prior criminal record and was not previously known to law enforcement.
“We don’t see anything in his background that would have put him on our radar at this time,” Smith said.
The attack sent shockwaves around the world and prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security.
Israeli and U.S. officials have deemed the attack as part of a rising tide of antisemitism, intensifying amid Israel’s escalating offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog earlier told Israeli Army Radio that the woman killed was an American employee of the embassy, and the man was Israeli.
Leiter said that President Donald Trump had been in contact with him and promised to “do everything [to] fight and end antisemitism.”
For his part, the president posted on Truth Social hours after the shooting: “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”
Deputy Director of the FBI Dan Bongino confirmed that federal agents are questioning Rodriguez.
Assistant Director of the FBI's Washington Field Office, Steve Jensen, said that an investigation into the homicides will “look into ties to potential terrorism” and if the attack was a “hate crime.” Jensen denounced the shooting as “heinous.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that former Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro will be prosecuting the case.
Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said.
Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, “Free Palestine,’” Kalin said.
“This event was about humanitarian aid,” Kalin said. “How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.”
Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948.
The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with East Jerusalem as its capital — lands Israel captured in the 1967 war. However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
