The man accused of fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., in May 2025 has been charged with new terrorism-related counts, according to federal prosecutors.
The 31-year-old suspect from Chicago was charged in a 13-count superseding indictment that was unsealed on Feb. 4 in United States District Court, with four counts of terrorism while armed and a federal aggravating factor for “substantial planning and premeditation to commit an act of terrorism,” according to a news release from United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.
The suspect had been indicted on hate crime and murder charges in the shooting deaths of 26-year-old Sarah Milgrim and 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky, who both worked at the Embassy of Israel, as the two left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. He injured two others.
He was initially charged with the murder of a foreign official, causing death through the use of a firearm and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, two federal counts of a hate crime resulting in death, and two counts each of first-degree premeditated murder while armed and assault with intent to kill while armed under the D.C. criminal code.
At a September 2025 arraignment, the suspect pleaded not guilty to all counts on the earlier indictment.
Multiple of the charges filed against him carry a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment, according to Pirro’s office.
“My office will not rest in our efforts to hold Elias Rodriguez accountable for this horrific, and targeted act of terror against Yaron Lischinsky, Sarah Milgrim and our Jewish community,” Pirro said in the news release. “These additional terrorism-related charges carry a mandatory life sentence under D.C. Code, while also reflecting the reality that this act was in fact an act of terror.”
Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen before coming to the U.S. on official business. He worked for the Israeli Embassy in D.C., where he had worked for just over two years, according to CNN. Milgrim moved from Kansas to D.C. to pursue a master’s degree. She began working for the Israeli Embassy shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Two surviving victims also worked for the Embassy.
According to the superseding indictment, Rodriguez reportedly approached the victims as they exited a young professionals event at the museum, fired about 20 shots with a semi-automatic handgun and shouted “Free Palestine!”
Eyewitnesses heard Rodriguez tell police officers, “I did it for Palestine,” and “I did it for Gaza,” after turning himself in, CNN reported.
“In addition to allegedly murdering two innocent people and terrorizing the survivors of his attack at the Capital Jewish Museum, Rodriguez wrote and published a manifesto attempting to morally justify his actions and inspire others to commit political violence,” said Darren B. Cox, the FBI assistant director in charge of the D.C. Field Office, in the news release. “His alleged actions warrant the additional terrorism charges being announced today.”
