Israeli Embassy staff members fatally shot in Washington, D.C., were about to get engaged

The victims of a fatal shooting outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., have been identified as a young couple who worked at the Israeli Embassy and were on the verge of getting engaged. 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, and referred to them both as embassy staff members. The Israeli Embassy said the pair were “in the prime of their lives.” 

“No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss,” the embassy said in a statement on social media. “Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time.” 

Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., told reporters the pair was a “beautiful couple,” and said Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring “with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem.” World leaders quickly condemned the slayings.

Sarah Lynn Milgrim

Sarah Lynn Milgrim’s father, Robert Milgrim, said she started working for the embassy in November 2023 after earning a bachelor’s degree at Kansas University and two master’s degrees — one at American University in Washington, D.C., and the other at the United Nations for Peace University in Costa Rica. Her degrees focused on international studies and policy, he said, and she had been hired at the Israeli Embassy before the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead and touched off the war in Gaza.

“This is her first real job after finishing her six years of education,” Robert Milgrim told CBS News.

The Kansas University chapter of Hillel, the world’s largest Jewish campus life organization, remembered Milgrim as a “beloved alum” whose “bright spirit and passion for the Jewish community touched everyone fortunate enough to know her.” She served on the organization’s board of directors, KU Hillel said. 

Before working for the embassy, Milgrim spent several summers in Israel where she worked with “Palestinian and Israeli groups to bring them together,” Robert Milgrim said. She made both Palestinian and Israeli friends on those trips, he said. 

“She loves Israel and she loved everybody that lived in the Middle East,” Robert Milgrim said.

Robert Milgrim said his daughter met Lischinsky while earning a master’s degree at American University. The two started dating weeks after they met, and the family “loved” Lischinsky, her father said. 

He said the couple was flying to Israel on Sunday to meet Lischinsky’s family in Jerusalem, adding that he was told Lischinsky had been planning to propose on the trip. 

“We didn’t know that he was going to propose then,” Robert Milgrim said. “And the ambassador told us that he knew that he’d bought the ring and was going to present it to her in Jerusalem.” 

Yaron Lischinsky

Lischinsky was a German dual national, the AFP reported. He “spoke fondly of growing up” in Bavaria, a region of southern Germany, and was “very much in love with his childhood home” there, said Lore Herzog, who had known Lischinsky since 2018. He came from a large family, Herzog said. 

“He loved them all dearly and spoke about them all the time,” Herzog said. 

Herzog remembered Lischinsky as a “very morally upright person with a very strong sense of justice.” The two met while living in Jerusalem.

“Yaron was super cheerful and seemed to really love everything he did,” said Herzog, who now lives in Amsterdam. “It was his dream to work in politics and international relations.”   

Suspect in custody

Elias Rodriguez has been named as a suspect in the shooting and is currently in custody, officials said. Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, was initially “observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum” before he approached a group of four people, “produced a handgun,” and shot Lischinsky and Milgrim, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said in a news briefing. 

Rodriguez entered the Jewish Museum immediately after the shooting, and was arrested by museum security, Smith said. Witness video shows Rodriguez shouted “Free Palestine” while being arrested. 

Rodriguez had discarded the weapon used in the shooting, but told police where it was. It has since been recovered, Smith said. 

Rodriguez also “chanted ‘free, free Palestine,’ while in custody,” Smith said. 

Metropolitan Police said Rodriguez didn’t pop up on an initial search of crime databases and wasn’t on the radar of law enforcement agencies. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the city’s police department and the FBI will be investigating the shooting. 

A Justice Department source told CBS News that Rodriguez may make his first court appearance as early as Thursday.