MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The man suspected of killing two Israeli Embassy employees outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., has been charged with two counts of murder, among other crimes.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Law enforcement officials say they're continuing to investigate the attack as a possible hate crime.
MARTIN: NPR's Jennifer Ludden is with us now with the latest. Jennifer, good morning.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: I understand that we now have a lot more information on what exactly happened. So what can you tell us?
LUDDEN: Yes. We know now from the affidavit that the suspect, Elias Rodriguez, flew from his home in Chicago to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. That's the day before the attack. He declared a firearm in his checked luggage, and he bought a ticket to the event that was taking place at this Jewish museum three hours before it started. It was a mixer for young diplomats. From witness interviews and surveillance video, we also have some pretty gruesome details of the shooting. Law enforcement officials say Rodriguez shot at the two victims from the back and kept firing repeatedly, even as one of them tried to crawl away. He then discarded his 9-millimeter handgun, and eventually, he went inside the museum and told a police officer that he had done this, saying, quote, "I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza."
MARTIN: And The Washington Post is also reporting that the gunman sat down indoors after the shooting as though he was fleeing the danger. A witness told the Post that somebody even got him a glass of water. So President Trump and others have called this an act of antisemitism. But is it correct that so far, he has not been charged with a hate crime?
LUDDEN: That's right, not at this point. But Jeanine Pirro, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters that the murder charges and others are only the beginning. Federal agents raided Rodriguez's home in Chicago yesterday. They learned that he expressed admiration for a person who self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy here in D.C. last year. He described them as a martyr. And Pirro says investigators are going through massive amounts of evidence to learn what motivated him.
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JEANINE PIRRO: Violence against anyone based on their religion is an act of cowardice. It is not an act of a hero. It is the kind of case that we will vigorously pursue.
LUDDEN: And she says, look, there's going to be additional charges as the evidence warrants.
MARTIN: Tell us more about the two people who were killed. They were a young couple. They both worked at the Israeli Embassy. What else can you tell us about them?
LUDDEN: Yeah, it's really quite sad, Michel. Israel's ambassador to the U.S. said Yaron Lischinsky had bought an engagement ring. He was planning to propose to Sarah Milgrim next week. They were going to be on a trip to Jerusalem. Lischinsky was a German and Israeli citizen. Milgrim was American. She grew up in a Kansas City suburb. A friend of Milgrim's, Israeli attorney Ayelet Razin Bet Or, told me she took the embassy job after Hamas attacked Israel a year and a half ago. She was already sensing a rise in antisemitism, and she wanted to combat that.
AYELET RAZIN BET OR: Not with violence or shoutings or verbal abuse, but in diplomacy, with love, with intelligence.
LUDDEN: Razin Bet Or says it is a painful irony that Milgrim lost her life in this way.
MARTIN: Finally, Jennifer, very briefly, obviously, something like this heightens people's fears - obviously, for many Jewish people, but others as well. Are officials saying something about that?
LUDDEN: Absolutely. D.C.'s police chief says there's going to be more law enforcement officers around faith-based groups, schools and places like the Jewish Community Center here.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Jennifer Ludden. Jennifer, thank you.
LUDDEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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