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Suspect recorded killing of Israeli embassy staffers, prosecutors say

Defense attorneys of Elias Rodriguez have asked for more time to present mitigating evidence against the death penalty.

A photograph of Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky is displayed outside the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum on May 29, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
A photograph of Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky is displayed outside the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum on May 29, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

The man indicted for the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., in May recorded his crime with a body camera, prosecutors said in a court filing on Friday, according to the Associated Press.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, who was indicted in August on murder and federal hate crime charges, purchased the camera online, the report read.

He had it delivered to the hotel where he was staying in Washington before the fatal shooting of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as the couple left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21.

The transaction demonstrates the premeditated nature of the crime, prosecutors said, according to AP.

Prosecutors have not announced whether they will seek the death penalty for Rodriguez if he is convicted, the report continued.

The Trump administration said in August that the suspect would be eligible for the death penalty if found guilty.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office set an Oct. 20 deadline for Rodriguez’s lawyers to submit “mitigation evidence” against a death sentence, AP reported. However, his defense attorneys asked for an extension until March 19.

A hearing on that defense request is slated to take place on Wednesday.

Prosecutors, however, oppose an extension.

The killings were “calculated and planned,” prosecutors moreover said, as Rodriguez flew to Washington from Chicago with a handgun in his checked luggage.

Lischinsky and Milgrim were about to get engaged.

Lischinsky was a German-born Christian Zionist who had served in the Israel Defense Forces and “chose to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause,” according to Israeli Ambassador to Berlin Ron Prosor.

Milgrim was a U.S. citizen.

D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said following the killings that the suspect chanted, “Free, free Palestine” as he was taken into custody.

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