US to seek death penalty for suspect in killing of Israeli embassy staff members

The US government is seeking the death penalty for the suspect charged with killing two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington DC last year.

The US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, on Friday filed a notice of intent to seek capital punishment for three out of 13 total charges against 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez. President Donald Trump has embraced the federal death penalty after his predecessor Joe Biden limited its use.

Prosecutors allege Rodriguez opened fire on the couple – Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26 – outside the Capital Jewish Museum before shouting “Free Palestine” during his arrest in May 2025.

Pirro’s office will seek death if Rodriguez is found guilty of the charges of murder of a foreign official, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, and causing death through the use of a firearm.

The suspect has also been charged with other offences including hate crimes and acts of terrorism.

“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 earlier this year.

Prosecutors allege that ahead of the shooting, Rodriguez expressed support for violence against Israelis, including in social media posts where he allegedly wrote “Death to Israel”.

Prosecutors have said he travelled from Chicago to Washington DC with a handgun after researching an upcoming networking event for young Jewish professionals at the museum.

Lischinsky and Milgrim were leaving when the suspect fired 20 shots, killing them both, prosecutors allege. They were in a relationship and Lichinsky had bought an engagement ring, planning to propose to Milgrim on an upcoming trip to Israel, according to CBS News, the BBC’s media partner.

After the shooting, Rodriguez then allegedly entered the museum, displayed a red keffiyeh, and said: “I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza.”

Prosecutors also say Rodriguez wrote a document called “explication” in which he expressed his support for Palestine and claimed Israel was trying to exterminate Palestinians.

“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,” Darren Cox, FBI Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington Field Office, said in a February press release.

During his first term, Trump brought back federal executions, which had not been carried out for more than a decade, and changed justice policies to make it easier to perform the execution that the Biden administration then rescinded. Biden then imposed a moratorium on federal executions.

On his first day he returned to the White House, Trump directed the justice department to “prioritize seeking death sentences in appropriate cases, promptly carrying out those sentences, and strengthening the death penalty”, according to the department.

Since then, his administration has reestablished executions by lethal injection and expanded the types of execution the federal government can use, such as firing squad, while also expediting death penalty cases, according to the justice department.