2 Israeli embassy employees are killed at a shootout in the city center of Washington, DC: NPR,

Washington – Two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, were shot in a Jewish museum in the capital before an event, the police said on Wednesday.

Shortly after the time of 9 p.m. on Wednesday, as an event of the Pro-Israel Advocacy Group American Jewish Committee in a local Jewish museum in the city center of DC, a man was observed outside the building outside the building, said Pamela Smith, police chief of Metropolitan.

The man approached a group of four people and then opened the fire, said Smith. Two people were killed – a man and a woman who were a couple said officers. Then the shooter entered the museum and was arrested by Event Security, said Smith.

“The suspect sang in custody” free, free Palestine “,” added Smith. The police said they had temporarily identified the suspect as Elias Rodriguez (30) from Chicago. He had no previously known encounters with the police, said Smith.

The victims were “a couple who got engaged,” said Israel's ambassador in the USA, Yechiel Head. “The young man bought a ring this week to suggest his girlfriend in Jerusalem next week. They were a beautiful couple who enjoyed an evening in Washington's cultural center.”

The ambassador said he received a call from President Trump. The President, said Head, told him that the White House would “do everything they could possibly do to fight and end anti -Semitism”.

The shootout took place outside of the Capital Jewish Museum in downtown Washington, less than a mile from the US capitol. The American Jewish Committee, a pro-Israeli Jewish interest group, held an event in the museum on Wednesday evening, the group said in a statement.

“We are destroyed that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the event location,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the group, told NPR. “Our attention and our hearts are exclusively with those who have been damaged and their families.”

“We actively examine and are working on getting more information about sharing” On the social media platform X. “Please pray for the families of the victims. We will put this spoiled perpetrator in court.

Steve Jensen, an official in the FBI field office of the FBI, described “a hideous crime”. The FBI is investigating “connections to potential terrorism or motivation based on a pre -referred crime or a hate crime,” he said.