Two Israeli Embassy employees — including an American — were shot and killed Wednesday night as they left the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., officials said. A suspect is in custody.
The victims have been identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Law enforcement officials described the attack as “targeted” and said the suspect shouted “Free Palestine” as he was being detained. The shooting was being investigated as a hate crime, a law enforcement source said.
Milgrim was from Kansas. Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog said. Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., told reporters they were on the verge of getting engaged.
“The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem,” Leiter said. “They were a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washington’s cultural center.”
Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said the shooting was reported at 9:08 p.m. local time and occurred outside the museum, which is located near an FBI field office and is in the heart of the U.S. capital. Responding officers found the victims with gunshot wounds, unconscious and not breathing, the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department told CBS News.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on social media the suspect was interviewed at approximately 1 a.m. but Bongino didn’t provide any details, citing the pending investigation.
“Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence,” Bongino said in an earlier post. He also called the attack “an act of terror.”
The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, was initially “observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum” before he approached a group of four people, “produced a handgun,” and shot the two victims, Smith said at a late-night news conference.
The suspect entered the museum immediately following the shooting and was arrested by museum security, the police chief reported. “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.”
A woman who encountered the suspect after the shooting said he reached into his bag, pulled out a keffiyeh and said, “I did it. I did it for Gaza,” before he shouted, “Free Palestine.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters Thursday that the suspect was believed to have acted alone. She said he will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
“Our Jewish community must feel safe,” Bondi said. “What we saw last night was disgusting. I saw a young man’s body being taken away who was about to get engaged. He had an entire life in front of him, and that was taken away.”
The suspect was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, murder of foreign officials, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. All are felonies, and the murder charges carry up to life in prison or the death sentence, if he is convicted.
CBS News identified an account on social platform X that belongs to the suspect and has a history of posts about pro-Palestinian activism and frustration with media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, as well as inflammatory posts about Israel and a discussion of violence for political gain.
Rodriguez didn’t pop up on an initial search of crime databases and wasn’t on the radar of law enforcement agencies, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. The police and the FBI were combing through his social media, and electronic devices belonging to the suspect have been seized, a law enforcement source said. A large law enforcement presence blocked off roads in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood Thursday as officers executed a search believed to be connected to the shooting, CBS News Chicago reported.
In a post on social media, the Israeli Foreign Ministry called the shooting a “brutal terrorist attack.”
Robert Milgrim said that his daughter started working for the embassy in November 2023 after earning a bachelor’s degree at Kansas University and two master’s degrees, one at American University in Washington, D.C., and the other at the United Nations for Peace University in Costa Rica. Her degrees focused on international studies and policy, Robert Milgrim said. She had been hired at the Israeli Embassy before the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead and touched off the war in Gaza, he said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump is “saddened and outraged” over the deaths of Lischinsky and Milgrim, and the Justice Department will be prosecuting their killer “to the fullest extent of the law.”
Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., said he spoke to Mr. Trump by phone following the shooting, as did Bondi, who attended the news conference and earlier said that she responded to the scene of the shooting.
“I spoke to the president of the United States multiple times tonight,” Bondi said. “On behalf of the president, his prayers are with all of us, all of the Jewish community, all of us in Washington, D.C.”
Mr. Trump later wrote 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!”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that he’s “shocked” by the “horrific, antisemitic” shooting. He said he instructed Israeli missions around the world to beef up security.
“We are witnessing the terrible price of anti-Semitism and the wild incitement against the State of Israel,” Netanyahu continued.
In a statement, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the shooting a “despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism,” adding, “America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us.”
Other world leaders also released statements condemning the attack.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said D.C. Metropolitan Police and the FBI will be investigating.
“We will not tolerate antisemitism,” Bowser said. She said “the FBI’s role, of course, as always when there is any possibility of a terrorist act, or acts motivated by hate or other bias, the FBI will be conducting those investigations.”
In an early statement, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote on social media that “two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC.”
FBI Director Kash Patel also wrote on social media that “my team and I have been briefed on the shooting tonight in downtown DC outside the Capital Jewish Museum and near our Washington Field Office.” Patel said the FBI was working with D.C. police on the investigation.
“There is no ongoing threat to public safety,” the FBI Washington Field Office wrote on social media.
Reprinted from CBS
