Jewish museum shooting suspect could face death penalty

WASHINGTON (CN) — U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro announced Thursday that the Justice Department will consider the death penalty for the 31-year-old Chicago man arrested in connection to the May 21 shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

At a press conference, Pirro vowed to prosecute Elias Rodriguez and any other individuals charged with hate crimes — particularly those deemed antisemitic — with “vengeance.”

“Violence against anyone in this district will not be tolerated, especially violence which has hate at its core and is the genesis of violence,” Pirro said. “The president put me here to do a job, to clean up the district, to make sure that crime doesn’t overshadow this phenomenal city, our nation’s capital.”

According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday, Rodriguez faces nine counts in connection to the shooting that killed 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli diplomat, and 26-year-old Sarah Milgrim, a U.S. citizen and employee at the Israeli Embassy.

According to Yeichel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Lischinsky had purchased a ring and planned on proposing to Milgrim in June.

A federal grand jury indicted Rodriguez with two counts of hate crime murder charges, one count of the murder of a foreign official, two counts of murder with a firearm, two counts of premeditated murder in the first degree under D.C. law and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed, also under D.C. law.

The shooting injured two other employees from the embassy, referred to only as C.S. and A.T. in the indictment.

If convicted, Rodriguez faces life in prison or the death penalty.

Pirro explained that, per the findings of the grand jury, her office had begun to process with the Justice Department’s Capital Case Section to consider the death penalty. The section would then advise Attorney General Pam Bondi, who would make the ultimate decision.

She added that she was in contact with the victims’ parents, whom she said would have input on whether to pursue the death penalty.

Reid Davis, an FBI special agent in D.C., said Thursday that Rodriguez seemed to have acted alone and sought to advance his political agenda via the mass shooting.

According to the indictment, Rodriguez flew from Chicago to Washington on May 20, with a Heckler and Koch VP9 SK 9mm semi-automatic handgun in his luggage.

He also wrote a manifesto dated May 20, titled “Explication,” that denounced Israel’s war on the Palestinian people in Gaza as a genocide, described his actions as “armed demonstration” and called to free Palestine.

“A word about the morality of armed demonstration,” Rodriguez reportedly wrote. “Those of us against the genocide take satisfaction in arguing that the perpetrators and abettors have forfeited their humanity.”

On May 21, Rodriguez purchased a ticket to the “Young Diplomats Reception” sponsored by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum and scheduled a social media post that would publish his “Explication” later that evening.

According to the indictment, Rodriguez approached and fired approximately 20 shots at Lischinsky and Milgrim as they exited the museum, ultimately killing them.

The shooting comes amid a heightened focus on antisemitic violence in the wake of the Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed approximately 1,200 Israelis and Israel’s subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were 9,354 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in 2024, a 5% increase from the 8,873 recorded in 2023. The ADL said that 58% of the incidents included anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist elements.

Thursday’s announcement comes amid mounting evidence of famine and widespread starvation in Gaza due the Israel’s strict control of humanitarian aid and repeated shootings at American-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites. Recent estimates by Gaza’s Health Ministry place the death toll in Gaza over 60,0000.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he planned to take control of all of Gaza in an interview with Fox News, expanding the Israeli Defense Forces’ presence from the 75% it currently controls.

The move comes almost 20 years after Israel formally disengaged from the Gaza Strip and dismantled 21 settlements in the wake of the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit, which ended a five-year Palestinian uprising that began following the failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said the division would enforce a “zero-tolerance policy” for any hate-motivated violence on the basis of actual or perceived national origin, such as this case.

“The community in question has been reeling from a stream of violence that has been occurring in these United States for almost two years now,” Dhillon said. “To those who seek to inflict further pain and suffering on Israeli communities, we will use every legal tool at our disposal to hold them accountable for these actions and deter future actions.”

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