Two Israeli Embassy Staff Members Shot Dead in Washington; Chicago Man Charged with Murder of Foreign Officials
On the evening of May 21, 2025, two staff members of the Embassy of Israel were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, District of Columbia. The next day, Elias Rodriguez of Chicago was charged by federal criminal complaint with the murder of foreign officials, among other offenses.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, which announced the charges on May 22, Rodriguez was charged in U.S. District Court with the murder of foreign officials, causing death through the use of a firearm, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, and with two counts of first-degree murder under the D.C. criminal code. The charges were announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Steven J. Jensen, and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela A. Smith.
The affidavit in support of the complaint states that the museum was hosting an event that evening organized by the American Jewish Committee, bringing together Jewish professionals and members of the diplomatic community, and that at about 9:08 p.m. Metropolitan Police Department First District officers were dispatched to a shooting at the intersection of 3rd and F Streets, Northwest. Both decedents were employees of the Embassy of Israel: Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen in the United States on official business, was pronounced dead at the scene, and Sarah Milgrim was pronounced dead at 9:35 p.m. after being transported from the scene.
The affidavit also states that airline records show Rodriguez flew from Chicago O'Hare Airport to Reagan National Airport on May 20, and that after his arrest he was identified by an Illinois driver's license and Firearm Owner's Identification Card. The affidavit noted that Rodriguez had expressed admiration for the actions of an individual who self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington on February 25, 2024.
The case is being investigated by the FBI's Washington Field Office and the Metropolitan Police Department, and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia with assistance from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Prosecutors noted that a criminal complaint is merely an allegation, and that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
(Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia)
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿哥伦比亚特区的首都犹太博物馆（历史犹太会堂与现代馆舍），2024年6月摄。Ajay Suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. (historic synagogue and modern museum building), photographed in June 2024. Photo by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
