What we know about the Chicago man identified as the suspect in the fatal shooting near the DC Jewish museum

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What we know about the Chicago man identified as the suspect in the fatal shooting near the DC Jewish museum

A suspect in the Wednesday

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near the Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., has been identified as a Chicago man with no known criminal history who apparently has railed on social media against the ongoing bombing of Gaza by Israel.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, of the 4700 block of North Troy Street, was being held for questioning, authorities said Thursday. He was interviewed by D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department as well as the FBI, and is scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon, according to officials. A news conference was set for 4:45 p.m. in Washington.

Authorities alleged Rodriguez walked into the museum after the shooting, was detained by event security and began chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” officials said.

Police on Thursday had blocked the street outside his apartment building in the Albany Park neighborhood on the city’s Northwest Side. By 8:15 a.m., a stream of heavily armed men, the letters FBI inscribed on their backs, were seen leaving the brick, U-shaped apartment building, where one apartment window had a sign in the window reading “Justice for Wadea,” a reference to the killing of 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume by his family’s landlord in the suburbs in 2023.

Neighbors on the block were startled to open their doors to the sight of federal agents clogging the street. “That’s terrifying,” one woman said when told why they were outside her home.

John Wayne Fry is a neighbor who lives next door to the suspected shooter, a man he said lived in the apartment with a woman. He doesn’t know the relationship between the suspect and woman. But said they were friendly.

“They were very friendly. You would never expect something like this. I mean, my goodness, they had Hello Kitty on their front door. I think you’re dealing with a young person who is sensitive,” said Fry, 71. “I don’t think we’re dealing with somebody who you would normally expect to be violent. You have to ask yourself what would cause a decent human being to do something crazy like this. What causes this? Because it shocked me.”

Fry said that he heard the suspect was from Chicago but never thought it would be his next door neighbor. He was asked if they ever talked politics, and he said no.

“Today, I regret I never had a conversation with him,” he said.

After hours on the scene, FBI agents packed up their equipment and left the suspect’s apartment at about 1:45 p.m. They also towed away a gold Hyundai Accent with Illinois plates.

The investigation is being run by federal authorities in Washington, with significant assistance from the FBI Chicago field office and other Chicago-based federal agencies. The FBI’s Washington field office put out a statement Thursday morning that “FBI Chicago is conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity in the Chicago area in relation to yesterday’s tragic shooting in Washington D.C.”

In a social media account attributed to the suspect, a lengthy manifesto was posted at 9 p.m. Wednesday titled “Escalate for Gaza. Bring the War Home,” which decried the killings of tens of thousands in Gaza, lamented how civil protests had failed to stop it, and debated the morality of “armed demonstration.”

The post ended with what appeared to be a reference to an “action” about to be taken. “I am glad today at least there are many Americans for which the action will be highly legible and, in some funny way, the only sane thing to do,” the post stated.

Rodriguez was also once linked to the Party for Socialism and Liberation — a far-left group that regularly posts anti-Israel rhetoric on social media. “End the genocide. Israel out of Gaza now,” the group posted Wednesday — just hours before the DC shooting.

“We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL,” the group said in an X post early Thursday.

In an online bio for the site “The History Makers,” Rodriguez stated he was “born and raised in Chicago” and graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago with a major in English. He’d worked as an oral history researcher since 2023, cultivating biographies of accomplished leaders in the African American community,” the bio stated. He said he enjoys “reading, writing, fiction, live music, film, and exploring new places.”

The bio was removed from the site Thursday morning. A UIC spokesman later confirmed Rodriguez graduated from the university in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in English.

Most recently, Rodriguez had worked as an administrative assistant for the American Osteopathic Information Association, the organization confirmed Thursday. In a statement, leaders of the organization’s sister group, the American Osteopathic Organization, offered their condolences to the victims’ families and said they were “shocked and saddened to learn that an AOIA employee has been arrested as a suspect in this horrific crime.”

The association and its sister organization would cooperate with law enforcement investigators in any way it could, the statement continued.

At an unrelated news conference Thursday, Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling was asked whether Rodriguez was known to police.

“What we know right now is that he doesn’t have a criminal background, but I won’t get too much into it because this is still an ongoing investigation with the FBI so we’ll keep it at that,” Snelling said.

Snelling said the department had already “put special attentions” at places of worship, is monitoring social media and is in “constant contact” with Jewish leaders.

On Thursday morning, Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement he was “horrified” to hear of the shooting and disclosed that a member of his staff was attending the event.

“While they are shaken up, they are thankfully safe,” the governor said. “Law enforcement has apprehended the suspected gunman, and although the investigation continues, make no mistake: this was an attack on the Jewish community.”

Pritzker, who is Jewish, has pledged Illinois’ support for Israel while also seeking to distinguish ****** militants from the ************ people, who he has said want peace in the region. But as someone who led the building of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Pritzker expressed how the shooting resonated with him and what trauma it has caused.

“Young Jewish people and diplomats came together in a museum built to honor their shared history but then had to flee gun shots and witness the killing of a young couple,” Pritzker said. “Whether it’s gun violence or the rising tide of antisemitism, Americans of all backgrounds have an urgent obligation to stand for peace and reject bigotry in all its forms and in every way possible.”

It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez had an attorney who could comment on his behalf. A telephone number listed in public records rang unanswered.

Rodriguez had previously posted on X that it was time to bring the war in Gaza home.

Reaction to the shooting continued to pour in from elected officials Thursday.

At an unrelated press conference on summer safety in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson extended his “deepest condolences” to the families of those killed and to “the Jewish community as a whole,” condemning “all of these acts of anti-semitic brutality.”

“We are not a better, stronger, safer city if our Jewish community is continuously under attack. We condemn these acts of terror and the anti-semitic sentiment that unfortunately has continued to spread throughout our city and around this country,” the mayor said.

At the same event, Snelling pledged his department would “work across this entire city to make sure every single neighborhood is safe from hate and terroristic acts.”

“In the city of Chicago, there’s no place for hate, there’s no place for terrorism, and we’re not going to tolerate it,” Snelling said.

Lonnie Nasatir, the president of the Jewish United Fund, said he was “horrified, sad, but unfortunately not so surprised” that “two beautiful young people” lost their lives in a senseless act of violence. He said he’s also saddened that a Chicago resident could become so “infected with hate” so as to allegedly carry out the shooting.

“We have been screaming from the hilltop … that what we’re seeing on our streets of Chicago, on our campuses in Chicago, is not innocuous rallying cries. These are rallying cries of hate. These are rallying cries to incite violence against Jews and Israel,” Nasatir said. “And unfortunately, we saw somebody that took those words and those mantras into serious and violent action last night.”

Nasatir said all community leaders, including politicians, university officials and business professionals, must call out antisemitic words and actions.

“People of goodwill throughout our community need to stand up and say, ‘no, you can’t normalize antisemitism,” Nasatir said. “It’s so acute right now, and it’s so in our face, and it’s now leading to the loss of life that our leaders need to step up and say, ‘we will not allow this in our buildings, in our streets.’”

50th Ward Ald. Debra Silverstein, the only Jewish member of the City Council, said she was “deeply concerned to learn that the attacker came from Chicago.”

She said she spoke with Snelling and local police commanders, who told her there is “no known threat to our local Jewish community.”

“However, out of an abundance of caution, the 24th District is increasing patrols and putting extra attention on our community,” Silverstein wrote. “I ask for law enforcement to investigate any ties to local extremist groups and to act swiftly to make sure the Jewish community in Chicago is kept safe.”

U.S. Sen. ***** Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said it was “absolutely devastating” to hear of the shooting. His colleague, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, (D-Ill.) called the shooting “absolutely horrifying.”

“My heart goes out to the victims, their families and loved ones and the entire Jewish community in the wake of this inexcusable act of antisemitic violence,” Duckworth said. “Hate should never find safe harbor in America, and we should all be united in the fight against antisemitism.”

Rodriguez was arrested at the scene where two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.

They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

Rodriguez was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, Smith said.

The stunning attack prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security. The shooting comes as Israel has launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in a war with ****** that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally.

“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” President Donald Trump posted on social media early Thursday. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”

Tribune reporters Madeline Buckley, Caroline Kubzansky, A.D. Quig and Rebecca Johnson contributed to this report

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