A man from Chicago made his first appearance in court on Thursday to face murder accusations and a possible death penalty for the death of two Israeli embassy employees in front of the Washington Jewish Museum in a crime of anti-Semitic hatred, authorities.
Elias Rodriguez, 31, appeared to the Washington Federal Court against US magistrate Matthew Sharbaugh. He did not present a defense in the case. The judge ordered him to remain in custody and marked a preliminary audience for June 18.
Rodriguez was accused of murder, murder of foreign employees, causing the death of a person using a firearm and firing a firearm during a violent crime. If convicted, he may face the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Authorities claim that Rodriguez killed the two embassy employees on Wednesday night (21) and then shouted “Free, Free Palestine.” The victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were a couple who planned to be engaged next week in Jerusalem, said Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter. The FBI has stated that it is investigating whether there are possible connections with terrorism or hate crimes.
“This is a horrible crime and they will not be tolerated by me or this office,” said Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney’s attorney for Columbia district at a press conference on Thursday. “A young couple at the beginning of their journey of life about to be engaged in another country had their bodies removed on the cold night, in a foreign city, in a bag. We will no longer tolerate it.”
Pirro said the case is eligible for death penalty, but prosecutors have not yet decided to seek that penalty.
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Steve Jensen, assistant director of the FBI office in Washington, said Rodriguez arrived in the capital region on May 20 and was arrested the following night. Researchers are examining their electronic devices and online presence, including a written set that may have been their own. Jensen stated that Bureau was working to determine whether the documents could be considered a manifesto and pointed out to an ideological reason.
“The tragic murder of these two employees of the Israeli embassy in front of the capital’s Jewish museum last night was both an act of terror and violence directed against the Jewish community,” he said.
Authorities and politicians of all ideological spectra condemned the attack. “These horrible DC murders, obviously based on antisemitism, should end now!” Said President Donald Trump in a statement on the Social Truth. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the act “seems to be another horrible instance of antisemitism, which, as we know, is very common in our society.”
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the shooting as a deliberate act of violence against the Jews. “Yaron and Sarah were not victims of a random crime,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Thursday. “The terrorist who cruelly murdered them did so for one reason and one reason just – he wanted to kill Jews.”
The attack occurs amid high tensions after the war between Israel and Hamas, which began after Hamas launched an invasion on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking 250 hostages. The Ministry of Health controlled by Hamas states that more than 53,000 Palestinians died in the ongoing conflict, although the ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Israel lost more than 400 soldiers in the fighting.
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