U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced Friday that federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the man accused of fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum last year. Elias Rodriguez was indicted on multiple federal charges, including terrorism-related offenses, in connection with the deaths of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.
Several of the charges carry potential penalties of death or life imprisonment.
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Rodriguez had previously been charged with the murder of a foreign official, firearms offenses, two federal hate crime charges resulting in death, and two counts each of first-degree premeditated murder while armed and assault with intent to kill while armed.
To obtain a death sentence, prosecutors must prove that Rodriguez specifically targeted the victims because they were Jewish and Israeli. Milgrim was a U.S. citizen, while Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen working in the United States, the Washington Times reported.
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“My message to anyone who seeks to commit political violence in this district: D.C. is not the place. You will be held accountable, and you will face the full wrath of the law,” Pirro said at a Friday news conference.
Rodriguez allegedly traveled from Chicago to the Washington area with a handgun stored in his checked luggage and had reviewed information related to the American Jewish Committee and its support for Israel, according to authorities.
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Witness statements and surveillance footage indicate that after pacing outside the venue, Rodriguez approached a group of four people and opened fire, shooting the victims at close range after they fell to the ground, investigators said.
According to the indictment, Rodriguez approached the victims as they were leaving a “Young Diplomats Reception” at the Capital Jewish Museum and fired at them with a semiautomatic handgun, the Times reported.
He called out, “Free Palestine,” then said, “I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza.”
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Prosecutors said he was “motivated by political, ideological, national, and religious bias, contempt, and hatred,” according to Friday’s court filing.
He “targeted individuals whom he perceived to have attended an event for young Jewish professionals, organized by the American Jewish Committee and hosted at the Capital Jewish Museum, to amplify the effect of his crimes,” they wrote.
His next court date is June 30, but a trial date has not been set, the Times noted.
Meanwhile, attorneys for Cole Tomas Allen, the man suspected of sprinting past security at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., last month, are seeking to remove Pirro and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche from the case.
Lawyers for Allen – who is charged with crashing the April 25 event armed with two guns and knives – say that because Pirro and Blanche were at the WHCD, they have a conflict of interest in the case.
Allen, 31, a teacher in Torrance,Calif, shot and hit a Secret Service agent who was protected by his bulletproof vest. The agent fired back but didn’t hit Allen.
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Both Blanche and Pirro heard gunshots, likely ducking behind the tables along with the rest of the attendees, the complaint claims. They were evacuated quickly.
“Both were potential victims and targets in what they have described as an attempted ‘mass shooting,” the defense lawyers’ court filing states.
Pirro even posted to her X account about the harrowing incident roughly 30 utes after the melee, saying: “I’ve been taken out of the ballroom after the sounds of shots fired.”
Blanche and Pirro’s involvement in Allen’s case presents “grave concerns about whether they are making prosecutorial decisions as representatives of the government or as witnesses,” the defense team wrote.
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