What we know about the Israeli embassy staff who shoots in Washington DC

A couple who worked for the Israeli embassy was shot outside of a Jewish museum in Washington DC.

The police say that the victims, mentioned as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were killed by a man who called “free, free Palestine”.

The suspect is in custody.

This is what you need to know about the shooting.

At 9:08 pm on Wednesday, the police received several phone calls about a shooting outside of an event in the Capital Jewish Museum in the center of Washington DC.

A man and a woman were found unconscious and did not breathed on the spot and died later.

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said that the couple left the event in the museum at 3rd St NW – an area with numerous tourist sites, museums and government buildings, including the FBIs Washington Field Office.

The police claim that the shooting was committed by Elias Rodriguez, 30, from Chicago, who is questioned in custody.

MPD Chief Pamela Smith said he was seen up and down outside the museum before he opened fire with a gun on a group of four people.

The suspect then entered the museum where he was held. The police said he sang “free, free Palestine” while he was in custody.

MPD leads the research. The FBI said it is investigating “ties with potential terrorism or motivation based on bias-based crime or a hate crime”.

The Israeli embassy in the US called the couple killed and said that his staff were “deeply sad and destroyed by their murder”.

“No words can express the depth of our grief and horror about this devastating loss. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be on their side in this terrible time.”

Yechiel Leiter, Israeli ambassador in the US, said the young couple were about to be involved.

“The young man bought a ring this week with the intention of proposing his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem,” he told a press conference.

“They were a nice couple.”

A rabbi in Washington who met the couple said, “They were nice, popular people.”

Levi Shemtov told BBC Radio 4 Today program that he saw the couple at Jewish events in the city.

This is “brutal news,” he said.

Witnesses described the aftermath of the attack outside the Jewish museum of the capital.

“Around 09:07 we heard gunshots, and then a man came in and seemed really sad and we thought he just needed help and he needed a safe hiding place,” said Katisher.

Yoni Kalin, who was also at the event, said: “So people calmed him and gave him water, cared for him. We didn’t know that he was someone who executed people in cool blood.

“He was the shooter. When the police originally showed up, he was like:” I did this. I am unarmed. “

“He brings out a red kaffiyeh and he said:” I did this for Gaza. Free Palestine. There is only one solution. Intifada Revolution “, and he just kept shouting ‘free Palestine’.”

The event in the Capital Jewish Museum was invoiced as a to bring Jewish young professionals and the diplomatic community together.

The organizer, the American Jewish committee, said it was open to the one in the DC diplomatic community. The theme of the event was advertised as “handling pain”.

The description of the event said that it invited humanitarian aid organizers who responded to humanitarian crises in the middle, including Gaza.

The hours were publicly advertised, but the location was only shared with those who register to participate.

President Donald Trump convicted the attack and called it anti -Semitic.

He posts on his social media platform Truth Social, he said: “These terrible DC murders, clearly based on anti -Semitism, must now end up!

“Hate and radicalism have no place in the US condolences to the families of the victims.

“So sad that such things like this can happen! God bless you all!”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “indignant about the horrible anti -Semitic murder” of the victims.

“My heart mourns the families of the young loved ones, whose life in an instant was demolished by a disgusting anti -Semitic murderer,” he said.

“I have directed that safety is being increased in Israeli missions around the world and for the representatives of the state.”

The Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that the death of the couple was a “direct result of poisonous, anti -Semetic incentive against Israel and Jews around the world who has been on 7 October since the massacre”.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the cross -border attack of Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were held hostage.

Since then, at least 53,475 people have been killed in Gaza, including 3,340 since the Israeli offensive resumed, according to the health minister of the territory.