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WASHINGTON (CN) — A Chicago man arrested in connection with the fatal shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum last May pleaded not guilty to a set of murder, hate crime and terrorism charges on Tuesday.
Elias Rodriguez, 31, faces 13 counts in a superseding indictment in the May 21, 2025, killing of 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli diplomat, and 26-year-old Sarah Milgrim, a U.S. citizen and employee at the Israeli Embassy.
Rodriguez, in his first court appearance in the case, was shadowed by a U.S. Marshal while entering his not guilty plea at the podium. He was primarily represented by Diane Shrewsbury of the D.C. Federal Public Defender’s Office.
Justice Department attorney Christopher Tortorice told U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, a Barack Obama appointee, the government was “continuing apace” through its death penalty protocol as it considers whether to seek the punishment.
The parties agreed to a status conference on May 5, where the court could hear the Justice Department’s decision on the death penalty and the defense’s presentation of mitigating circumstances to lessen the punishment.
Moss said the case was “complicated” and “raises a serious of important issues” as he approved the proposed schedule, noting the “enormous” amount of discovery already.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro announced last August the Justice Department would consider the death penalty for Rodriguez, vowing that any individual charged with hate crimes in Washington — particularly those deemed antisemitic — would be prosecuted with “vengeance.”
A federal grand jury indicted Rodriguez on 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 superseding indictment, filed Feb. 4, adds four counts of an act of terrorism while armed under D.C. law, over acting with the intent to influence government policy related to Israel and its war on Gaza. The terrorism charges are split between two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of assault with intent to kill.
“My office will not rest in our efforts to hold Elias Rodriguez accountable for this horrific and targeted act of terror against Yaron Lischinsky, Sarah Milgrim and our Jewish community,” Pirro said in a statement announcing the new charges. “These additional terrorism-related charges carry a mandatory life sentence under D.C. code, while also reflecting the reality that this act was in fact an act of terror.”
If convicted under the federal charges, Rodriguez faces life in prison or the death penalty. Local D.C. law does not carry the death penalty as a punishment.
The shooting injured two other employees from the embassy, referred to only as C.S. and A.T. in the indictment.
According to officials in 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.
They say he also wrote a manifesto dated May 20, titled “Explication,” denouncing Israel’s war on the Palestinian people in Gaza as a genocide, describing his actions as “armed demonstration” and calling 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 prosecutors, Rodriguez approached and fired approximately 20 shots at Lischinsky and Milgrim as they exited the museum, killing them.
As police removed Rodriguez from the museum, he shouted “shame on you” and “shame on Zio-Nazi terror” at the remaining attendees, prosecutors said.
Darren B. Cox, FBI assistant director in charge from the Washington Field Office, said in the statement that Rodriguez’s “alleged actions warrant the additional terrorism charges,” citing the defendant’s manifesto.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Metropolitan Police Department, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. is receiving assistance from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
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