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Two killed in shooting in front of the Jewish Museum in Washington

Two killed in shooting in front of the Jewish Museum in Washington

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Two employees of the Israeli embassy were shot in front of the Jewish Museum Capital in Washington on Wednesday evening.

Amichai Chikli, Minister of Israeli diaspora matters, appointed himself one of the victims of the attack as Yaron Lischinsky on X/Twitter.

Ambassador Yechiel Head said that the victims were a young couple who was recently engaged to be married.

The suspect called “Free Palestine” in the arrest, Pamela Smith, head of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Washington, and added that the suspect also went before the museum in front of the museum.

MPD later identified the suspect than 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, whereby the head of MPD commented that Rodriguez was not known to the police before the incident. Previous reports described him as “a pointed beard, a blue jacket and blue jeans”.

Tal Naim, a spokesman for the message, confirmed that the two took part in a Jewish cultural event in the museum at the shootout.

“We have full confidence in the law enforcement authorities at both local and federal level to capture the shooters and to protect the representatives and Jewish communities of Israel in the United States,” she added.

During an interview with 103fm on Thursday morning, Naim commented: “We are simply shocked by the incident that happened here. It is important to say that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is always threatened and even more threatened after October 7th.”

“The murder of a young couple who came to an event of a Jewish body in a Jewish museum – it is just a very hard blow,” she added.

When asked how an attacker managed to enter and shoot the event at will, she replied: “At first you have to be precise – he did not enter the event. He lurked outside and when they came out, he shot up close. These are questions that have to be asked.”

Naim also commented on life in Washington as Israeli and explained: “For six months we had dozens of people who demonstrated with signs, called us children's murderers and poured red water on us, which is poured like blood in Gaza. This is the reality of the embassy employees.”

She then described the news that the Americans are exposed to and said: “An American citizen who grows his television – and I don't even talk about the networks because the much more chopped – shocking pictures from Gaza sees, and many of them are fake.

The Task Force FBI Joint Terrorism is currently investigating the incident. The FBI director Kash Patel added that his team was informed and worked with MPD to examine.

What was the event where the shootout took place?

The event in the Capital Jewish Museum was carried out by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that supports Israel and confronts anti -Semitism, according to his website.

An online invitation to the event called the young diplomat reception and describes it as a compilation of Jewish specialists between the ages of 22 and 45 and the Washington Diplomatic Community.

Despite the late hour, several people gathered at the scene of the shootout, including one who knelt over his shoulders with an improvised Israeli flag at the intersection.

Aaron Shemtov, who studies in California at a rabbinical college, said that he had come to the museum to show support after the shootout was heard.

“When a member of the community is murdered and killed who he is, we are proud, we are strong and never give up,” said Shemtov.

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who was also at the scene, said that the couple occasionally took part in his Washington synagogue.

“It is very sad to see that instead of that these people come to the ultimate celebration of their life – they wanted to get engaged – they are shot dead on the street just because they are,” said the Rabbi, who is also the Executive Vice President of the Jewish group American Friends of Lubavitch.

Reuters contributed to this report.

This is a developing story.



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