In this image taken from video provided by WJLA, law enforcement work the scene after two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (WJLA via AP)
HIGHLIGHTS
- Two staffers at Israel’s embassy in Washington, D.C., were shot dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night.
- Social media footage showed the suspect shouting “Free, free Palestine” while he was led away. Police identified him as Elias Rodriguez, in his early 30s and from Chicago, and said he “implied” that he committed the crime.
- The victims were identified by the Israeli government
- The man suspected to have killed two Israeli Embassy staffers at a Jewish museum in Washington last night said after the shooting: “I did it for Gaza,” a witness said.
- Katie Kalisher, a 29-year-old jewelry designer who witnessed last night’s shooting, told Reuters she was at the Capital Jewish Museum to listen to a panel on humanitarian aid in Gaza, minutes before gunshots were heard outside at about 9 p.m. local time.
- “We didn’t really understand what’s going on,” Kalisher said.
- The museum had recently raised security concerns amid a broader climate of rising antisemitism affecting Jewish institutions in the United States, after Israel prevented aid from reaching the starving people in Gaza
- ‘ I did it for Gaza’
- The Suspect said I did it for Gaza witnesses said
- Shortly after the shooting, a man who “looked very scared” came inside. “We thought that he was just in the street … and maybe [he] came into the building because he wanted to be somewhere safe,” she said.
- Kalisher said that in an attempt to calm him down, she and others began helping the man and talking to him. When he asked what kind of museum they were inside, she told him it was a Jewish museum, she said. The suspect then appeared to be confused.
- “He asked me, ‘Do you think that that’s why they did it?’” referencing the gunshots that they had heard.
- “It took me a second,” she said, adding that she told him, “I don’t think that’s why, I’m sure it’s unrelated.”
- She said that the man then pulled out a keffiyeh, a traditional black and white scarf worn by Arabic communities that has been linked with the pro-Palestinian movement, revealing himself to be the suspected shooter.
- “He pulls out his keffiyeh and he says, ‘I did it. I did it for Gaza. Free, free Palestine,’” before the police came inside and arrested the man, Kalisher said. Police identified the suspect as Elias Rodriguez.
- Kalisher added that afterwards, the crowd was moved away from the windows and doors for safety while police officers swarmed inside with guns. “It just felt really surreal,” she said.as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim — a couple who were about to become engaged.
- The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was outraged by the “horrifying antisemitic murder.”
- The FBI is investigating whether the shooting could be hate-motivated. U.S. and Israeli officials have condemned the attack as antisemitic.
Israeli FM worried
Israel’s foreign minister says he’s ‘very worried’ there would be more attacks against diplomats
“I’m very worried,” Sa’ar told reporters at a briefing in Jerusalem. “I want to tell you that during the last months and weeks, we had a couple of incidents in several embassies.”
Some of the attacks were even “not reported,” he added, and they happened “mainly in Europe.”
British police said last month they had arrested and charged a man with a terrorism offence after he allegedly tried to break into the Israeli embassy in London with a bladed weapon.
Israel said at the time that none of its embassy staff members were harmed and the building didn’t suffer any damage either.
CNBC