Authorities have identified a suspect in the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy workers near a Jewish museum in Washington D.C. as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago.
Israel’s embassy in the U.S. named the victims as Yaron and Sarah. “No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss,” it said.
Video footage on social media showed a man chanting “free, free Palestine” being led away by officers inside what appeared to be the Washington D.C. Capital Jewish Museum.
Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters the suspect made the same chant while in custody.
Smith said a man had been seen pacing outside the museum before the shooting.
One eyewitness inside the museum told WAGA-TV a man ran into the building after the shooting and was initially offered help.
“The security guard happened to let this guy in. I guess they were thinking and he was covered in rain, he was clearly in trauma, he was in shock, and some of the people in the event brought him water, they sat him down ‘are you ok? Were you shot? What happened?’ He’s like ‘somebody call the cops.’
“So about 10 minutes later when the cops actually came in he said ‘I did this,’ he said ‘sir I’m unarmed,’ he put his hands up he grabbed a red keffiyeh out of his pocket and started the free Palestine chants. You know ‘there’s only one solution intifada revolution’ and he was being dragged out of the building as he was yelling ‘free Palestine’.”
This article will be updated.
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