Biography
Chicago resident charged in the May 21, 2025 shooting deaths of Israeli Embassy staff Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Rodriguez stayed at the scene after the shooting, dropped his weapon, identified himself to officers, and shouted 'Free, free Palestine.' Prosecutors attribute to him a 900-word document titled 'Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home,' arguing that armed action against U.S. support of Israel during the war on Gaza was a moral necessity, and citing the 2014 Gaza war as the origin of his political awakening. A 2018 English graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, he was briefly active with the Party for Socialism and Liberation's Chicago chapter through 2017 (the PSL has since publicly disavowed any current affiliation) and worked as an oral-history researcher at The HistoryMakers before taking an administrative role at the American Osteopathic Information Association. Held without bond in federal custody in Washington, D.C. since the arrest. Faces a 13-count federal superseding indictment (Feb 2026) including two counts of first-degree murder, murder of foreign officials, two hate-crime counts resulting in death, causing death with a firearm, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, and four counts of acts of terrorism while armed. The Department of Justice has signaled its intent to seek the federal death penalty.
