Everything we know so far about Washington DC shooting suspect Elias Rodriguez
A 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering two Israeli embassy workers on a busy Washington, DC street.
Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, was ‘pacing’ outside the capital Jewish Museum before the shooting, where an event was being held in support of Gazans by the American Jewish Committee.
After the shooting, he walked in and was detained when he began chanting ‘Free, free Palestine’.
A LinkedIn Profile, which is thought to belong to Rodriguez, says he worked as an administrative specialist for the American Osteopathic Information Association in Chicago.
Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said that authorities had not had any ‘prior interactions’ with the suspect: ‘We don’t see anything in his background that would have placed him on our radar.”
‘Our joint terrorism task force is working very closely with the FBI to ensure that we can do a deep dive into his background.’
And in 2017, he spoke to Liberation News, dubbed the ‘Newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation’, about the police killing of a black man in Chicago.
He identified himself as a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation during the interview, but the Party for Socialism and Liberation clarified today that he only had a ‘brief association’ with the branch, which closed in 2017.
‘We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL,’ they said in a post on X.
His biography at his former workplace, ‘The History Makers’ said he was born and raised in Chicago and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
‘He enjoys reading and writing fiction, live music, film and exploring new places,’ it added.
Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s US Ambassador, told a news conference the two killed were a ‘beautiful’ soon-to-be engaged couple, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky.
‘The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem,’ he said.
Event organiser JoJo Klin told the BBC: ‘I’m not going to lose my humanity over this or be deterred. Israelis and Palestinians both still deserve self-determination, and it is deeply ironic that that’s what we were discussing.
‘It was bridge building, and then we were all hit over the head with such hatred.’
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