Suspicious about murders in Washington DC charged with two foreign officials

The suspect accused of having put two employees of the Israeli embassy off a Jewish museum in Washington DC.

The attack on Wednesday evening is examined as a hate crime, and further charges are expected, said US lawyer Jeanine Pirro at a press conference.

“This is a case for the death penalty,” she said on Thursday and added that it is too early to say whether the prosecutors will decide on a death sentence.

Steve Jenson from the FBI field in Washington DC described the murders “an act of terror and led violence against the Jewish community”.

The couple Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were shot on Wednesday before an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC around 9:08 p.m. local time (02:08 BST). The suspect opened the fire to a group of four years who left the event and killed the two victims, the police said.

The police identified the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago. He was arrested shortly after the shootout at the scene.

Officials said he was up and down in front of the museum before opening the fire. The eyewitnesses informed the BBC that it was initially held with a traumatized viewer and could help in the museum.

A witness, Yoni Kalin, said the people inside “calmed him down”. “We knew little that he was someone who executed people with cold blood,” he said.

The police said the suspect also called “Free Palestine” before he was taken into custody.

The suspect landed in the Washington DC area the day before, said Jenson, and the investigators still put his whereabouts together before the attack. According to an affidavit, the officials believe that Chicago to Washington DC flew for a work conference on Tuesday.

Social media accounts that have been associated with the suspect have shown as an administrative specialist at the American Osteopathic Information Association (AOIA) in Chicago since 2024.

At his trial on Thursday, the suspect was charged and ordered to remain in custody. His next hearing was planned for June 18.

Shortly after the shootout, Israel's ambassador in the USA Yechiel said that Mr. Lischinsky wanted to propose Mrs. Milgrim during an upcoming trip that she had planned in Jerusalem.

“They were a nice couple,” said Head at a press conference.

A vigil for Ms. Milgrim was expected on Thursday in her hometown Kansas City. Previously, she had spoken in American public life about her fears of anti -Semitism. In 2017 she was interviewed by a local television station after her school in Kansas had been devastated with a Nazi hub.

“I'm worried about my synagogue, and now I have to worry about security at school and that shouldn't be a thing,” said Ms. Milgrim, who was in her last high school year at that time.

The police said the suspect was not on the radar and had no previous interactions with the law enforcement authorities. They said he admitted to the attack and was said to have acted alone.

The weapon used in the attack was a 9 -mm gun that was legally bought in Illinois in March 2020 and was brought to Washington in his certified luggage. Illinois has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the United States.

Social media reports associated with the suspect also show that he was very involved in the Propalestinian protest movement. Investigators said they were working on authenticating the writings online, which were allegedly written by him, accused Israel of the genocide in Gaza, criticized US policy and discussed the application of political violence.

A home connected to the suspect in Chicago was searched on Thursday, and the authorities also said that they searched its electronic devices.

John Wayne Fry, one of his neighbors in Chicago, said reporters that he lived in the same house as the suspect for about a year.

The suspect showed a photo outside of his apartment of a Palestinian-American child who was killed in Chicago in 2023, said Fry.

The man who killed the six -year -old Wade Alfayoumi was convicted of hate crushing accusations in the early this month. Officials said he was motivated by hate to Islam and the conflict in Gaza.

It is unclear whether the suspect had direct contact with the boy's family.

Jojo Kalin, one of the organizers of the event in Washington DC, said the BBC said that the event in which the victims took part concentrated on how to build a coalition to help people suffer from the current Israel-Hamas War in Gaza.

She added that it was “deeply ironic that what we discussed, bridge building and then all of them were hit over the head with such hatred”.

The attack was convicted by the leaders of the world, including the British Prime Minister Keir Starrer, who said that he condemned the “anti -Semitic attack” in Washington DC “thoroughly”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack “a hideous anti -Semitic murder” and added that security for Israeli representatives and diplomatic missions worldwide would increase.

US President Donald Trump also condemned anti -Semitism in response to attack and wrote truth on his social media platform that “hatred and radicalism in the USA”.

Trump and Netanyahu later spoke by phone about the incident in which the US President expressed grief to his Israeli counterpart, according to an exhibition of the call.

With the reporting by Mike Wendling in Chicago