The suspect accused of shooting and killing two Israeli embassy staff members at a Wednesday night event in Washington DC was mistaken for a witness by security, eyewitnesses told the BBC.
Jojo Kalin, who organised the American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum, said she saw the attacker inside the building, looking “very distraught” after the shooting.
“The security let this person in thinking they were a bystander or witness,” she said, adding that she did not see a weapon on him. After she gave him water, she said the suspect pulled out a keffiyeh and yelled “free Palestine”.
Police have named the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, who is now in custody.
Mr Rodriguez is accused of fatally shooting Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, who both worked at Israel’s embassy in Washington DC.
The two were a couple, according to Israel’s ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter. The ambassador said the young man had bought a ring this week and planned to propose next week in Jerusalem.
The shooting unfolded at around 21:05 local time (02:05 BST), when a gunman opened fire at the couple as they were leaving Wednesday night’s event.
The chief of police in Washington DC, Pamela Smith, said Mr Rodriguez was allegedly seen pacing back and forth outside the museum before he approached a group of four and shot two of them with a handgun.
Moments later, eye witnesses said they spotted a man entering the museum “looking very distressed.”
“We thought he just needed help and just needed safe shelter,” Katie Kalisher, an eyewitness, told the BBC.
Another witness, Yoni Kalin, said “people were calming him down, bringing him water, taking care of him”.
It later became apparent that the man they were helping was the alleged shooter, Mr Kalin said. After police arrived, Mr Kalin said the suspect confessed to the shooting and “pulled out a red keffiyeh”.
“He said ‘I did this for Gaza. Free Palestine,'” Mr Kalin told the BBC.
Ms Kalin, the organiser, said the event was about building coalitions in the Middle East. She told the BBC it is “deeply ironic that what we were discussing was bridge building, and then we were all hit over the head with such hatred”.
Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, said police are interviewing the suspect and that “early indicators are that this is is an act of targeted violence”.
By BBC News
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