Murdered Israeli Embassy workers yearned for peace, loved ones say

Friends and family of 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky and his 26-year-old girlfriend Sarah Milgrim are describing the couple as lovely people who yearned for peace.

"Sarah was so empathetic and talking about the people in Israel who were suffering, the Palestinians in Israel are suffering," said friend, Jennifer Mizrahi. "She was an incredible person, and she will be really missed."

"Yaron was the kind of guy that would have conversations with anybody about anything," said another friend, Mariam Wahba. "I will forever think of him as a diplomat … and a peacemaker at heart."

Lischinsky was planning to propose to Milgrim next week, officials said.

"The couple that was gunned down tonight were about to be engaged," Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter said at the press conference. "The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem."

Meanwhile, the suspect in the shooting, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez, is being described as a terrorist fueled by hate and antisemitism after he was charged on Thursday with firearms violations and murdering foreign officials.

"Antisemitism will not be tolerated, especially in the nation's capital. We're going to continue to investigate this as a hate crime and a crime of terrorism," said interim United States attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro.

New details have emerged that Rodriguez had flown to the Washington, D.C., area on Monday and that he had checked a 9 mm handgun in with his luggage before buying a ticket to an event being held at the D.C. Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night, his alleged target location.

It was there that he allegedly murdered 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend, 26-year-old Sarah Milgrim, targeting them as they left a celebration of Jewish heritage just shortly after 9 p.m.

Rodriguez allegedly shot the two workers at the Israeli Embassy in the back and continued to fire at the after they fell to the ground. At least 21 shell casings were discovered at the scene.

On Thursday, Rodriguez was charged with the murder of foreign officials, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of first-degree murder, according to court documents.

The FBI was at the suspect's Chicago home on Thursday as it continued its international investigation while officials look for any signs of co-conspirators.

Those who lived in his Chicago neighborhood are stunned at what took place.

"I mean, he seemed like a normal friendly guy," one neighbor said. "I wish that I had an opportunity to talk with him, because if I had, I would have talked him out of it."

During his first court appearance Thursday afternoon, Rodriguez -- wearing a white jail jumpsuit and flanked by two U.S. Marshals -- waived his right to a detention hearing and asked for a public defender. He is next scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing on June 18.

Members of the Congressional Jewish Caucus spoke to reporters on Thursday afternoon, saying the "terror and antisemitic hate against the Jewish community must end."

"As a Jewish mother of young Jewish professionals, my first thought was, 'That could easily have been one of my kids or one of my staff,'" said Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.