Who is Elias Rodriguez, the suspect identified in Capital Jewish Museum shooting?
The suspect, seen handcuffed on video chanting ‘Free Palestine,’ appears to have left an extensive online footprint
A man, standing behind police tape, talks on his cell phone outside the Capital Jewish Museum following a shooting that left two people dead, in Washington, D.C., in the early hours of May 22. Two Israeli embassy staffers were killed in the shooting. Photo by Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
By Louis Keene May 22, 2025
The man arrested in connection with the shooting death of two people outside of a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night appears to have been a member of a socialist group.
The man, identified by the D.C. police chief as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, opened fire after approaching a group of four people Wednesday night following an American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum, police said.
The two killed were Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, staff members of the Israeli embassy, who were planning to become engaged next week.
After the shooting, Rodriguez then entered the museum, where he was detained by event security, according to the police chief, Pamela Smith. Rodriguez chanted “Free, free Palestine” after he was apprehended, Smith said.
A video filmed at the scene and posted on X by a reporter at FOX5DC, a local news channel, appeared to show a man in handcuffs chanting the slogan.
A woman who encountered Rodriguez in the museum after the shooting told a reporter he screamed, “I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” and opened a backpack, withdrawing a red kaffiyeh.
An online footprint belonging to a man named Elias Rodriguez, who closely resembles the man in the video, links him to the Party for Socialism and Liberation, an American organization that describes itself as a “revolutionary socialist party.”
A 2017 article in Liberation News, the official publication of The Party for Socialism and Liberation, described a speech Rodriguez delivered at a protest in Chicago in opposition to the city’s bid for an Amazon headquarters.
In a statement on X early this morning, The Party for Socialism and Liberation condemned the attack and said that Rodriguez “had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017.”
We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL. He had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017. We know of no contact with him in over 7 years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do…
— Party for Socialism and Liberation (@pslnational) May 22, 2025
In a news clip from the 2017 event, Rodriguez — who is identified as a member of the Chicago chapter of the Answer Coalition, a left-wing group that organized a pro-Palestinian protest on April 5 — says keeping Amazon out of the city would “demonstrate the power of people coming together.”
Rodriguez’s LinkedIn profile also says he worked for The HistoryMakers, a digital archive that documents the achievements of historically significant Black Americans, until July 2024.
An author bio on the HistoryMakers website, which includes a photo that resembles that of the man in the museum video, says Rodriguez holds a B.A. degree in English from the University of Illinois Chicago, and previously worked as a content writer.
“He enjoys reading and writing fiction, live music, film and exploring new places,” the bio says.
The Forward reached out to The HistoryMakers for comment.
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