May 22 (UPI) — Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot dead Wednesday night outside Washington’s Capital Jewish Museum where an event was being hosted by the American Jewish Committee, officials and authorities said.
“Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X.
Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters in a press conference that one person, the suspected shooter from Chicago, is in custody.
Police were notified of shots fired at 9:08 p.m. EDT outside the museum near the intersection of 3rd and F Street Northwest.
Officers found two people, a man and a woman — later identified as Israeli embassy staff members — unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds, injuries that they succumbed to, she said.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs named the victims in a statement early Thursday as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim.
We are shocked and horrified this morning by the news of the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the lives of two of our Embassy staff members in Washington – Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim.
May their memory be a blessing.
We embrace the grieving families during this… pic.twitter.com/4lNQnTvORG— Israel ישראל (@Israel) May 22, 2025
Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said they were a young couple about to be engaged.
“The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem,” he said. “They were a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washington’s culture center.”
Smith said the suspect was seen pacing back and forth outside the museum before approaching a group of four people, pulling out a handgun and shooting Lischinsky and Milgrim.
Event security detained the suspect who then entered the museum, she said.
“The suspect chanted, ‘Free, free Palestine’ while in custody,” she said, identifying the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser suggested the attack was terrorism.
“We will not tolerate this violence or hate in our city,” she said. “We will not tolerate any acts of terrorism, and we’re going to stand together as a community in the coming days and weeks to send a clear message that we will not tolerate anti-Semitism.”
Assistant Director Steven Jensen of the FBI Washington Field Office, which is located near where the shooting occurred, said they are aiding the MPD in the homicide investigation and will to see if it is considered a crime of terrorism or a hate crime.
Deputy Director of the FBI Dan Bongino confirmed in a statement that the suspect was being interviewed by MPD and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence,” he said.
AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement that the committee was “devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that she was at the scene of the crime. Leiter said she had handed him a cellphone following the shooting.
“On the end of the line was the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who told me that his administration is going to everything it can possibly do to fight and end anti-Semitism and the hatred that’s being directed — the demonization and the delegitimization of the State of Israel,” he said.
In a post to his social media platform Truth Social, the American president called for the end of anti-Semitic violence.
“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on anti-Semitism, must end NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA,” he said.
“Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things can happen!”
President Isaac Herzog of Israel said he was “devastated” by the shooting.
“This is a despicable act of hatred, of anti-Semitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy,” he said on X.
“America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values,” he continued. “Terror and hate will not break us.”
