US brings hate crime charges against suspect in killing of Israeli embassy workers
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A tribute placed at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on May 22, near the site where two Israeli embassy employees – Mr Yaron Lischinsky and Ms Sarah Lynn Milgrim – were shot dead the day before.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON – The US on Aug 6 brought federal hate crime charges against the suspect accused of gunning down two Israeli embassy employees outside a museum in Washington in May, alleging that he targeted them because they were Israelis, court papers showed.
The nine-count indictment returned against Elias Rodriguez, 31, accuses him of carrying out a hate crime resulting in death motivated by the “actual and perceived national origin of any person”. Rodriguez also faces charges of first-degree murder and murder of a foreign official.
The indictment also includes special findings that would make Rodriguez eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
Rodriguez was accused of fatally shooting Mr Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Ms Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, who were about to be engaged to be married.
They were leaving a May 21 event for young professionals and diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum and hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights anti-Semitism and supports Israel, when they were killed.
According to a criminal complaint, Rodriguez told police at the scene: “I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza.”
Witnesses recounted hearing him chant “Free Palestine” after he was taken into custody.
He has not yet entered a plea to the prior charges, which also include causing death with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence.
The killings in downtown Washington were widely condemned as an act of anti-Semitism and shook Jewish communities around the world.
Ms Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in Washington, said in May the shooting would be investigated as a hate crime and that the charges could carry the death penalty.
The indictment by a federal grand jury comes ahead of a scheduled court appearance in Rodriguez’s case on Aug 8.
It alleges that Rodriguez has a history of violent rhetoric online against Israelis, including a plea to “vaporise every Israeli 18 and above”.
Before the shooting, he scheduled a social media post to publish later that night with a document arguing that perpetrators and abettors of Israel’s military actions in Gaza had “forfeited their humanity”, according to the indictment.
Rodriguez, who was born and raised in Chicago, flew to the Washington area from Chicago the day before the shooting.
He was seen pacing outside the museum, little more than 1.6km from the White House, shortly before the shooting, police said.
Surveillance video footage showed Rodriguez firing about 20 rounds at Mr Lischinsky and Ms Milgrim, then leaning over them to fire several more rounds after they fell to the ground and after Ms Milgrim tried to crawl away and sat up, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit in the criminal complaint.
The gunman paused to reload, then resumed firing, it said.
He then tossed away his gun, retreated into the museum and was arrested there after calling attention to himself as the suspect, pulling out a red Palestinian-style keffiyeh scarf and declaring that he “did it”, the affidavit said. REUTERS
