Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, faces multiple charges in connection to the shooting, including murder of foreign officials, two counts of first-degree murder and felony firearm charges.
Pirro said authorities were investigating the crime as both an act of terrorism and as a hate crime. Additional charges may be issued as evidence warrants, she said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky was a research assistant and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel. Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the victims were a young couple about to be engaged, saying the man had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.
“A young couple at the beginning of their life’s journey about to be engaged in another country had their bodies removed in the cold of the night in a foreign city in a body bag,” Pirro said.
Lischinsky and Milgrim were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.
The suspect was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, then walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, Smith said. He yelled, “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested, police said.
A spokesperson for the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) expressed the organization’s “profound sorrow” about the shooting and confirmed that Rodriguez had been employed with them. The organization promised to cooperate with investigators during their investigation.
The stunning attack prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security. The shooting comes as Israel has launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in a war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally.
“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” President Donald Trump posted on social media early Thursday. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”
A spokesperson for the FBI Chicago Field Office told WGN-TV that it was supporting the Washington Field Office in its investigation into the deadly shooting.
On Thursday morning, agents with the FBI Chicago field office were spotted raiding a residence in East Albany Park. A spokesperson later confirmed that agents were conducting authorized law enforcement activity in the area, in relation to the shooting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that he was “shocked” by the “horrific, antisemitic” shooting.
“We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel,” he said in a statement.
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog told Israeli Army Radio that the woman killed was an American employee of the embassy and the man was Israeli.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said she was at the scene with former judge Jeanine Pirro, who serves as the U.S. attorney in Washington and whose office would prosecute the case.
The statement from Netanyahu’s office said he spoke to Bondi, who told him Trump was “involved in managing the incident” and the U.S. would bring the perpetrator to justice.
Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, wrote in a post on social media that “early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he was “devastated” by the scenes in Washington.
“This is a despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy. Our hearts are with the loved ones of those murdered and our immediate prayers are with the injured. I send my full support to the Ambassador and all the embassy staff.”
He added: “We stand with the Jewish community in D.C. and across the U.S. America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us.”
The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the alleged gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back.
The war in the Gaza Strip began with the Palestinian militant group Hamas coming out of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, to kill 1,200 people and take some 250 hostages back to the coastal enclave.
In the time since, Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians. The fighting has displaced 90% of the territory’s roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape.
The violence occurred following the American Jewish Committee’s annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum.
“This is a shocking act of violence and our community is holding each other tighter tonight,” Ted Deutch, American Jewish Committee’s chief executive, said in a statement early Thursday. “At this painful moment, we mourn with the victims’ families, loved ones, and all of Israel. May their memories be for a blessing.”
Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots, and a man came inside looking distressed, they said. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, “Free Palestine,” Kalin said.
“This event was about humanitarian aid,” Kalin said. “How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.”
Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of the local nonprofits in Washington awarded funding from a $500,000 grant program to increase its security. The museum’s leaders were concerned because it is a Jewish organization, and also because of its new LGBTQ exhibit, according to NBC4 Washington.
“We recognize that there are threats associated with this as well,” Executive Director Beatrice Gurwitz told the TV station. “And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.”
In response to the shooting, the museum said in a statement that they are “deeply saddened and horrified by the senseless violence outside the Museum this evening.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington CEO Gil Preuss said in a statement that he was horrified by the shooting and mourned the loss of the two people killed.
“Our hearts are with their families and loved ones, and with all of those who are impacted by this tragic act of antisemitic violence,” he said.
Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948. The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with east Jerusalem as its capital — lands Israel captured in the 1967 war.
However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.
AP writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Hallie Golden and Jon Gambrell contributed.
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