Yaron Lischinsky & Sarah Milgrim, Israeli embassy staffers shot dead outside Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C by Elias Rodriguez, Chicago activist and employee of HistoryMakers. Suspect belonged to a variety of left wing socialist groups.
Authorities have identified the suspect alleged to have gunned down two Israeli embassy workers near a Jewish museum in Washington D.C. as 30-year-old Chicago resident, Elias Rodriguez, purported to have ties to a variety of left wing activist groups.
Rodriguez is alleged to have opened fire after approaching a group of four people Wednesday night, just on 9.15 p.m, following an American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum, police said.
The two victims killed were identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, staff members of the Israeli embassy, who were planning to become engaged next week.
Elias Rodriguez manifesto: Chicago radical said violence was only sane option
Elias Rodriguez from Chicago is the murderer and of course when he was arrested he shouted “Free Palestine”
This is how the terrorist was filmed – moments after he murdered the Israeli embassy employees.
Palestinianism is a death cult.
Remember, the entire purpose of “free… pic.twitter.com/UXr5wTNee5— Cheryl E 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱🎗️ (@CherylWroteIt) May 22, 2025
Chicago activist chanted ‘Free Palestine’ after shooting dead embassy couple staffers
The couple both worked out of the Israeli Embassy in DC, Israeli officials said.
‘Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives,’ the Embassy of Israel to the USA wrote on X.
‘This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC. The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time.’
After the shooting, Rodriguez then entered the museum, where he was detained by event security, according to Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith. Rodriguez chanted ‘Free, free Palestine‘ after he was apprehended, Smith said.
Video footage on social media showed a man chanting ‘free, free Palestine’ moments after being arrested and being led away by officers inside the Washington D.C. Capital Jewish Museum.
Chief Smith told reporters the suspect repeated the chant while in custody.
Elias Rodriguez, Chicago man admits shooting staffers
Lischinsky served as a research assistant in the embassy’s Political Department since September 2022 after serving three years in the Israel Defense Forces, according to his LinkedIn.
Milgrim, who earned degrees from the University of Kansas and American University, worked in the embassy’s Department of Public Diplomacy since November 2023, her online profile stated.
A woman who encountered Rodriguez in the museum after the shooting told a reporter he screamed, ‘I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza,’ and opened a backpack, withdrawing a red kaffiyeh.
An online footprint belonging to Rodriguez, linked him to the Party for Socialism and Liberation, an American organization that describes itself as a ‘revolutionary socialist party.’
A 2017 article in Liberation News, the official publication of The Party for Socialism and Liberation, described a speech Rodriguez delivered at a protest in Chicago in opposition to the city’s bid for an Amazon headquarters.
In a news clip from the 2017 event, Rodriguez — who is identified as a member of the Chicago chapter of the Answer Coalition, a left-wing group that organized a pro-Palestinian protest on April 5 — says keeping Amazon out of the city would ‘demonstrate the power of people coming together.’
Left wing activism
Social media indicated Rodriguez previously marching with BLM, the People’s Congress of Resistance & ANSWER Chicago.
Rodriguez’s LinkedIn profile stated him working as a researcher for The HistoryMakers, a digital archive that documents the achievements of historically significant Black Americans, until July 2024.
An author bio on the HistoryMakers website, states Rodriguez holding a B.A. degree in English from the University of Illinois Chicago, and previously worked as a content writer.
“He enjoys reading and writing fiction, live music, film and exploring new places,” the bio says.
Prior to joining The HistoryMakers in 2023, social media described the alleged shooter working as a content writer for commercial and noncommercial firms in the technology space, both national and regionally based. Rodrigues is said to live in the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago.
