Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty for 2025 Capital Jewish Museum Shooter

U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the man who shot and killed two Israeli Embassy staffers outside Washington’s Capital Jewish Museum in May 2025, the DC US attorney’s office announced on Friday, May 15, 2026. The notice of intent filed by the attorney’s office states that Elias Rodriguez, the suspect, intentionally killed victims Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, and engaged in violence knowing it carried a risk of death. These actions meet the statutory threshold for federal death penalty eligibility, the filing says.

The notice lists various aggravating factors justifying capital punishment: grave risk of death to additional persons, substantial planning and premeditation to commit an act of terrorism, and the vulnerability of the victims. Prosecutors also detail non-statutory factors, including a bias motive. Federal prosecutors declare that Rodriguez’s actions were motivated by political, ideological, national, and religious bias, contempt, and hatred. “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,” the filing says.

In February 2026, Rodriguez was indicted on 13 counts, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for charges of Murder of a Foreign Official and Causing Death Through the Use of a Firearm. The Superseding Indictment takes into account Rodriguez’s long history of anti-Israel statements, including a social media post calling for the vaporization of every Israeli over 18. After shooting Lischinsky and Milgrim, Rodriguez yelled “Free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza.” Friends of Lischinsky, a Messianic Jew, said he “probably would have actually forgiven the man who killed him.”

(JPost/VFI News)

“He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.” – Proverbs 17:15