Federal prosecutors secured an indictment Wednesday detailing almost 10 charges linked with the killings of Israeli Embassy workers members Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim earlier this yr.
The indictment in opposition to Elias Rodriguez contains counts of premeditated murder and hate crimes leading to death. It additionally contains authorized findings that authorize the Justice Department to pursue the death penalty.
The step units the stage for the Justice Department to pursue its first death penalty case out of Washington, DC, in years. It additionally implies that the division cleared a key, and tough hurdle – convincing a grand jury that Rodriguez’s motivation for the murder was antisemitism.
Rodriguez has not but entered a proper plea in court docket and has been in federal custody for the reason that deadly shooting on May 21.
According to prosecutors, Rodriguez was caught on surveillance footage approaching the 2 victims as they ready to go away an occasion on the Capital Jewish Museum. Rodriguez allegedly fired on the two Israeli embassy staffers a number of instances, and then after they’d fallen to the bottom, leaned over them “with his arm extended, and firing several more times.”
As Milgrim tried to crawl away, Rodriguez allegedly “followed behind her and fired again.” Rodriguez then appeared to reload his firearm as the lady started to take a seat up, and, as soon as he reloaded, he allegedly shot at her once more.
Convincing a trial jury that Rodriguez dedicated hate crimes should still be a tough job for the prosecutors assigned to the case, because the evidentiary commonplace for a conviction is way larger than the one required for an indictment.
One hurdle in proving that the murder was motivated by non secular bigotry and not vitriol in opposition to the state of Israel is that Rodriguez repeatedly denounced Israel over the struggle in Gaza each at the scene of the crime and in alleged statements on-line — together with his remark to police after his arrest that “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.”
And if a trial jury convicts, prosecutors will then should show that capital punishment is warranted, a feat that hasn’t been completed within the district for a few years. While they now have the authorized authority to take action, DOJ will nonetheless have to tell a decide whether or not it plans to pursue a death sentence.
In the brand new indictment, prosecutors define a sequence of alleged statements Rodriguez made criticizing Israel and voicing help for violence in opposition to its residents.
“[P]lease please please god please vaporize every Israeli 18 and above so these kids have some chance at being human,” one message allegedly despatched in May 2024 on social media by Rodriguez reads.
Prosecutors additionally allege that Rodriguez authored a doc that referenced Israel’s struggle in Gaza, saying that “thus far rhetoric has not amounted to much.” He allegedly set the doc to be robotically uploaded on-line after the shooting.
In explaining why there needs to be an choice to pursue the death penalty, prosecutors mentioned that Rodriguez deliberately and with forethought killed the 2 victims, calling the best way he allegedly killed Milgrim, “especially heinous, cruel and depraved.”
NCS’s Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.