The Trump administration said on Thursday that Elias Rodriguez would be eligible for the death penalty if found guilty of shooting and killing two Israeli embassy staffers, as they left the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on May 21.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, on Wednesday, accusing him of murdering a foreign official, hate crimes, gun offenses, first-degree murder and assault with intent to kill, the U.S. Department of Justice stated.
“Rodriguez previously was charged by complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with the murder of a foreign official, causing death through the use of a firearm and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence,” the department said. “In addition, he had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder under the D.C. criminal code.”
The indictment “adds two federal counts of hate crime resulting in death and two local counts of assault with intent to kill while armed,” the Justice Department said. “Multiple charges in the indictment carry a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment.”
It added that Pamela Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, will decide “at a later date” whether to seek the death penalty.
Rodriguez is accused of killing Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, Israeli embassy colleagues who were planning to get engaged. The new indictment also alleges that Rodriguez also shot at but did not hit two other Israeli embassy staffers—identified as C.S. and A.T.—as they left the American Jewish Committee event with Lischinsky and Milgrim.
The gunman shot 20 times, killing Lischinsky and Milgrim, according to the Justice Department. “C.S. and A.T. escaped uninjured,” it said. (The department added that Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen in the United States on “official business” and that Milgrim, C.S. and A.T. were U.S. citizens.)
“During the shooting, the defendant allegedly called out, ‘free Palestine.’ Moments after the shooting, Rodriguez entered the CJM, where several event attendees were still present, displayed a red keffiyeh and allegedly said, ‘I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza,’” the department said. “As he was taken away, Rodriguez yelled at event attendees who had remained inside CJM, ‘shame on you’ and ‘shame on Zio-Nazi terror.’”
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant U.S. attorney general, stated that the department “will not tolerate violence motivated by hatred of faith or national origin, and we will enforce our federal civil rights laws accordingly.”
“This office will leave no stone unturned in its effort to bring justice to the innocent victims of Elias Rodriguez,” stated Jeanine Ferris Pirro, the newly confirmed U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. “The hate charges shed further light on his evil intent in the killing of innocent victims.”
The American Jewish Committee stated on Thursday that Milgrim’s and Lischinsky’s “young lives and full potential were horrifically stolen on May 21 outside the Capital Jewish Museum after they left an AJC event.”
“This deliberate and heinous act was a deeply personal tragedy for their families and for the entire AJC community. It was an assault on the values we hold as Americans, as Jews and as members of a shared society,” the AJC said.
“Their families deserve justice and healing,” it said. “We are grateful for the vigor with which the Department of Justice has proceeded thus far, and are confident that it will diligently continue its pursuit of justice for this murderous hate crime.”
David May, research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, stated on Wednesday that “even with the massive surge in antisemitism globally, the murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim stand apart for their heinousness.”
“The United States must demonstrate that it, in the words of George Washington, ‘gives to bigotry no sanction’ and prosecute the murderer to the fullest extent of the law,” May said. “But it is also important to push back against the incitement and lies directed at Israel and the Jews that allow killers to justify gunning down innocents in the streets of our capital.”
