A suspect is in custody after shooting dead two Israeli embassy staff outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC on Wednesday night.
The gunman, named by police as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, approached a group of four people leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum and opened fire, killing Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who officials said were in a relationship.
The Metropolitan police chief, Pamela Smith, said the shooter had been pacing outside the museum, which is steps away from the FBI’s field office, before the shooting.
After killing the pair he walked inside, where event security detained him. The suspect yelled: “Free, free Palestine,” after he was arrested, police said.
He was not on any security watchlists and there were no heightened security threats before the shooting, officials said. The firearm was retrieved as well, officials said.
The event was the annual Young Diplomats reception, organized by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), an evening described by its organizer to Sky News as bringing together US state department and embassy staff from various countries across the Middle East and North Africa to discuss “bridge building”.
The Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, told reporters the two victims were in a relationship and Lischinsky had “purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem”.
Lischinsky, 30, was a research assistant, and Milgrim, 26, a Jewish American, organised visits and missions to Israel.
“Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues,” the embassy said in a social media post. “They were in the prime of their lives. This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC.
“The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time.”
The US president, Donald Trump, condemned the killings on Truth Social. “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!”
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”.
“Her dedication to building a better future was evident in everything she did,” it said. “Her voice and spirit will be profoundly missed.”
Milgrim reportedly grew up in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park and held a master’s degree in international studies from American University and another in natural resources and sustainable development from the United Nations University of Peace.
Lischinsky, a German Israeli, worked in the political department of the Israeli embassy in Washington. He moved to Israel when he was 16. According to the bio on his Times of Israel blog, he had a master’s degree in government, diplomacy and strategy from Reichman University and a bachelor’s in international relations from Hebrew University.
The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said Lischinsky had been born in Nuremberg, Germany, and was “a Christian [and] a true lover of Israel”.
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he condemned the “heinous act in the strongest possible terms … We must assume an antisemitic motive.” The German-Israeli Society (DIG) paid tribute to Lischinsky as “an open, intelligent and deeply engaged person, whose interest in German-Israeli relations and promoting peaceful coexistence in the Middle East radiated to all those around him.”
He had written on his LinkedIn page: “I’m an ardent believer in the vision that was outlined in the Abraham Accords and believe that expanding the circle of peace with our Arab neighbours and pursuing regional cooperation is in the best interest of the state of Israel and the Middle East as a whole. To this end, I advocate for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding.”
On Instagram, Lischinsky’s bio included a yellow ribbon symbolizing the struggle to free the hostages taken by Hamas during its 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. In his final post on social media hours before the attack, Lischinsky had shared a post from the Israeli ambassador, Amir Weissbrod, accusing UN officials of engaging in “blood libel” over claims that 14,000 children faced starvation in Gaza.
Little is yet known about Rodriguez. He was quoted on the website of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) in an old post about a protest the group attended at then Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel’s house. However, the PLS denied that Rodriguez was a member: “He had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017. We know of no contact with him in over 7 years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.”
Yoni Kalin were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said. Kalin told the Associated Press that 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.”
Ted Deutch, the CEO of the AJC, which organized the event, told CNN that “really our worst fears came true” at the event, which he characterized as an annual gathering of “the American Jewish Committee’s young leaders”, with this year’s focus on “humanitarian diplomacy”.
“It was on finding ways to work together in an interfaith way across the region to help bring peace,” he said. “And all of the good feeling was shattered immediately after when these two beautiful, young souls were taken by this murderer.
“This is a horrific reminder to the Jewish community and the world that antisemitism often most times is not violent until it becomes violent. And when it does, it can become deadly. And that’s what we have to stop.”
The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, who was at the scene with the US attorney Jeanine Pirro, said the current thinking was that the gunman had operated alone.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused European governments of emboldening Hamas militants by condemning Israel’s recent expansion of its offensive in Gaza.
“They want Israel to stand down and accept that Hamas’s army of mass murderers will survive, rebuild and repeat the October 7 massacre,” Netanyahu said in a video, adding that they “may think that they’re advancing peace. They’re not. They’re emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever.”
International criticism of Israel over the Gaza war has increased in recent weeks and on Tuesday, in an unprecedented, joint statement with Canada and the UK, France condemned “the appalling language” of members of the government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the “outrageous actions” and the “intolerable level of suffering” of civilians.
France on Thursday dismissed claims by Sa’ar that European governments were inciting hatred.
“These are completely outrageous and completely unjustified remarks,” foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said. “France has condemned, France condemns and France will continue to condemn, always and unequivocally, any act of antisemitism.”
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. Blood libels against Israel have a cost in blood and must be fought to the utmost,” he said on X.
“We strongly oppose the expansion of military force in Gaza and the restriction of aid in Gaza,” reads a statement from UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer. ‘‘But that doesn’t provide any excuse for antisemitism or attacks of these kinds, it’s an evil that must be stamped out.”
Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of the local non-profits in Washington awarded funding from a $500,000 (£373,000) grant programme to increase its security.
Rights advocates have noted rising antisemitism as well as anti-Arab hate in the US since the beginning of the conflict, including an unsuccessful plot to attack a New York Jewish centre, an arson attack on the residence of the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, and attacks on Florida businesses perceived as pro-Israel.
Incidents linked to anti-Palestinian prejudice have included, among others, the fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois, the attempted drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas, a New York City assault by a pro-Israeli mob that chanted “Death to Arabs” and a violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters in California.
