5 hours ago
4
A suspect is in custody after shooting dead two Israeli embassy staff outside a Jewish museum in Washington 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.
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, who officials said were a couple, 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 two victims were both Israeli embassy employees. The Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, told reporters the two 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 was a research assistant, and Milgrim, a Jewish American, organised visits and missions to Israel. A former Israeli ambassador to the US, Mike Herzog, told Israeli Army Radio that Milgrim was an American employee.
“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.”
Tal Naim Cohen, a spokesperson for the embassy, said the two were shot after attending a Jewish event at the museum.
“Yaron and Sarah, Words cannot begin to describe the heartbreak and sorrow. Just this morning, we were still laughing together by the coffee corner – and now, all that remains is a picture,” she wrote in a post. “Instead of walking you down the aisle, we are walking with you to your graves. What an unbearable loss.”
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 suburbs 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.
After swastikas were painted at her high school during her senior year, she told a local news station at the time: “I worry about going to my synagogue and now I have to worry about safety at my school and that shouldn’t be a thing.”
Lischinsky, 28, 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 & strategy from Reichman University and a bachelor’s in international relations from Hebrew University.
The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosser, said Lischinsky had been born in Nuremberg, Germany, and was “a Christian [and] a true lover of Israel”.
The German chancellor, Frederich 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.”
Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher 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.”
The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, who was at the scene with the US attorney Jeanine Pirro, said she had spoken to Trump a number of times throughout the night.
The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, accused European governments of incitement against his country in comments at a press conference on Thursday.
“There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder,” Sa’ar said. “This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organisations, especially from Europe. I was worried … that something like this would happen – and it did.”
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.
A spokesperson at the Israeli embassy in Washington, Tal Naim Cohen, said the staff members were shot at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC. “We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel’s representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States,” she said.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, said he and his team had been briefed on the shooting. “While we’re working with [Metropolitan Police Department] to respond and learn more, in the immediate, please pray for the victims and their families,” he wrote on X.
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.
The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, said he was devastated by the scenes in Washington. “This is a despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy. Our hearts are with the loved ones of those murdered and our immediate prayers are with the injured. I send my full support to the ambassador and all the embassy staff.”
Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of the local nonprofits in Washington awarded funding from a $500,000 (£373,000) grant programme to increase its security.
“We’re going to stand together as a community in the coming days and weeks to send the clear message that we will not tolerate antisemitism,” the DC mayor, Muriel Bowser, told reporters. “There is no active threat in our community. What I do know is that the horrific incident is going to frighten a lot of people in our city, and in our country. I want to be clear that we will not tolerate this violence or hate.”
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 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.
