Disinformation swirled after the DC embassy shooting—here’s what we know about Elias Rodriguez and his motivations.
On Wednesday night two staff members at Israel’s Embassy in Washington DC, were shot dead by the assailant identified as Elias Rodriguez. Since then, various claims have been spread about the shooter, his motives and even two Israeli embassy employees he shot.
Upon news first breaking of the shooting in the US Capital, right-wing commentators almost immediately took to social media platforms, espousing anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiments. Some even claimed that “Islamic terrorism” had reached the streets of the United States, while others went so far as alleging that the assailant was a Muslim.
US Republican Congressman, Randy Fine, even went onto Fox News following the true identity of the shooter had been exposed and appeared to propose dropping nuclear bombs on the Gaza Strip as a reaction to the DC attack. He also talks about forcing people who “support Muslim terror” to submit to defeat.
We need more Americans to speak out like the neighbor of Elias Rodriguez. #FreeGaza #StopTheGenocide pic.twitter.com/T4iHnqvCXH
— ⚫ Blackstone Intelligence (@BlackstoneIntel) May 23, 2025
31-year-old Elias Rodriguez is an American citizen, born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and is not of the Islamic faith to anyone’s knowledge. He reportedly holds a BA in English, which he obtained from the University of Illinois.
After graduating University, he worked as a content writer for several technology companies in the US and abroad, before joining the History Makers Foundation in 2023, where he became an oral history researcher. His work with the History Makers Foundation primarily focused on compiling information from the biographies of prominent African American leaders.
Rodrigruez was revealed to have held left-wing politics according to multiple reports. Yet, earlier reports claiming him to be a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation were refuted in a statement published by the organisation, reading:
“We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL. He had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017. We know of no contact with him in over 7 years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.”
He did however, participate in anti-racist protests organized by a number of civil rights groups. In 2017, Rodriguez was photographed participating in a protest at Chicago City Hall on the anniversary of the murder of a young Black teenager named Laquan McDonald; killed by the police in 2014.
On Thursday morning, one of Rodriguez’s neighbors was interviewed and described him as “quiet and friendly”, also mentioning that he had kept a photo of a little girl from Gaza who was killed by Israel in his window.
Elias Rodriguez’s neighbor told mainstream media that Rodriguez displayed in his window a photo of six-year-old Palestinian Wadee Alfayoumi, who was stabbed to death by his family’s zionist landlord in 2023 in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/EaYoMNuAc3
— Unity of Fields (@unityoffields) May 23, 2025
This likely refers to Hind Rajab, who was trapped in a car inside Gaza City after an Israeli shell had targeted the vehicle, Israeli forces then fired 335 rounds at the car, killing the petrified little girl along with two rescue workers.
Others stated that Rodriguez enjoyed reading, writing fiction, listening to music and watching movies. He lived in an apartment near the Avondale neighbourhood in Chicago.
Journalist Ken Klippenstein later published the shooter’s manifesto on his Substack. Nowhere in the manifesto is there a reference to Islamic groups, it reads as a statement which focuses almost entirely on the mass murder of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Rodriguez allegedly wrote the following:
“Nonviolent protest in the opening weeks of the genocide seemed to signal some sort of turning point. Never before had so many tens of thousands joined the Palestinians in the streets across the West. Never before had so many American politicians been forced to concede that, rhetorically at least, the Palestinians were human beings, too.
“But thus far the rhetoric has not amounted to much. The Israelis themselves boast about their own shock at the free hand the Americans have given them to exterminate the Palestinians.”
He then went on to reference US airman, Aaron Bushnell, who burned himself alive in front of the Israeli embassy, screaming “free Palestine” until his dying breath, as a form of what he called at the time “extreme protest”. It appears from the manifesto, assuming it is genuine, that Rodriguez grew disillusioned with peaceful protest, writing the following:
“Aaron Bushnell and others sacrificed themselves in the hopes of stopping the massacre and the state works to make us feel their sacrifice was made in vain, that there is no hope in escalating for Gaza and no point in bringing the war home. We can’t let them succeed. Their sacrifices were not made in vain.”
He also adds an anecdote about what his actions would be aimed at achieving.
“A man of conscience once attempted to throw Robert McNamara off a Martha’sVineyard-bound ferry into the sea, incensed at the same impunity and arrogance he saw in that butcher of Vietnam as he sat in the ferry’s lounge laughing with friends.
“The man took issue with McNamara’s very posture, telling you, ‘My history is fine, and I can be slumped over a bar like this with my good friend Ralph here and you’ll have to lump it.’
“The man did not succeed in heaving McNamara off a catwalk into the water, the former secretary of state managed to cling to the railing and clamber back to his feet, but the assailant explicated the value of the attempt by saying ‘Well, I got him outside, just the two of us, and suddenly his history wasn’t so fine, was it?’”
Israeli officials quickly jumped to the conclusion that antisemitism was the motivating factor behind the killing of the two Israeli embassy staff, which took place right outside the Jewish Capitol Museum in Washington DC.
In his manifesto, there is no mention of Jewish people as his target and according to all the available information, this attack was politically motivated by opposition to Israel that was taken out on the two embassy employees.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu even took the opportunity to claim that “free Palestine” is the new “Heil Hitler”, in a similarly styled speech as was delivered last year when claiming that “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” was akin to a Nazi chant.
The two shooting victims were Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky. A flood of disinformation has also spread about the pair, with right-wing commentators claiming that both were Christians and not Jewish, in what appeared to be an attempt to frame supporters of Palestine as anti-West. Others took this information to fuel false flag theories.
Lischinkey was born in occupied Jerusalem, where his family lives, holding both Israeli and German citizenships. While his father is Jewish and mother is Christian, he was reportedly adherent to a minority denomination of Christianity, firmly committed to Zionism. On the other hand, Milgrim was Jewish and had visited Israel a number of times, including for a Birthright trip, but has not been confirmed as an Israeli citizen.
Although the full details of all three have not yet been released, what is now publicly available knowledge starkly contrasts a number of prevailing narratives spreading on social media, many of which are constructed with specific political motives.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
“US Republican Congressman, Randy Fine, even went onto Fox News following the true identity of the shooter had been exposed and appeared to propose dropping nuclear bombs on the Gaza Strip as a reaction to the DC attack.”
These right-wing, Christian-Zionist politicians never miss an opportunity to prove how dumb and hypocritical they are. If this dude suggests nuking Gazans for two deaths they haven’t even committed, what shall befell the Zios then? would a nuclear bomb the size of Jupiter be enough to avenge the +400,000 Palestinians,Lebaneses, Syrians and Yemenis murdered and injured at the hands of the Zios?
“Some even claimed that “Islamic terrorism” had reached the streets of the United States, while others went so far as alleging that the assailant was a Muslim.”
I think someone ought to muzzle these right-wing fascists. This is not the first time they accuse Muslims of something they haven’t done. Just a few months ago, two zionists were shot in the US but survived. It turns out that another Zionist thought they were Palestinians and shot them. Media outlets has buried the story since then. But the situation was as follows: A zionist shot two other zionists, the three of them chanted “death to the Arabs” while the right-wing was accusing Muslims of the “crime”. Pitiful comedy indeed.
This doesn’t feel right. It feels like most of the details surrounding it have been maligned and expanded to conveniently allow for untruths to creep in, which alter the actual narrative. Like Trump being targeted by the CIA then they blame the crisis actor who was paid to climb a roof and pretend to shoot at him. Many of the stories we hear are 90% BS, 10% half-truths. And how convenient for all the pro-Israel scumbags to blame Pro-Palestine protesters and the people of Gaza. For all we know this guy never even pulled the trigger and was paid just to be there as a patsy.
AS another commenter said: something about this feels off. The pro-Palestine movement in the US is constantly under attack already, and this shooting only gives fuel to the repression. Actually, mass surveillance and control of all discourse is the goal of our overlords anyway, but especially on the issue of I$rael, and this plays right into it. He had to have known that. On the other hand, what US/Israel are doing and saying–a live-streamed horrific genocide, is enough to drive any compassionate person mad. So I don’t know. All the same,something is off about it. What is abundantly clear is that it will be used for further crackdowns.
Is there an actual video of the shooting?