By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. on Wednesday brought federal hate crime charges against the suspect accused of gunning down two Israeli embassy staffers outside a museum in Washington in May, alleging 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 Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and 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 antisemitism and supports Israel, when they were killed.
Rodriguez told police at the scene: “I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” according to a criminal complaint. 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 antisemitism and shook Jewish communities around the world. Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in Washington said in May that the shooting would be investigated as a hate crime and 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 Friday.
It alleges Rodriguez had a history of violent rhetoric online against Israelis, including a plea to “vaporize 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 a mile (1.6 km) from the White House, shortly before the shooting, police said.
Surveillance video footage showed Rodriguez firing about 20 rounds at Lischinsky and Milgrim, then leaning over them to fire several more rounds after they fell to the ground and after Milgrim tried to crawl away and sat up, according to an FBI 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.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone)
