Police said a suspect was in custody after the shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum

Police said a suspect was in custody after the shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum

A suspect is in custody after shooting dead two Israeli embassy staff outside a Jewish museum in Washington on Wednesday night.

The gunman, named by police as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, approached a group of four people leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum and opened fire, killing Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.

Metropolitan police chief Pamela Smith said the shooter had been pacing outside the museum, which is steps away from the FBI’s field office, before the shooting.

After killing the pair, who officials said were a couple, he walked inside, where event security detained him. The suspect yelled: “Free, free Palestine,” after he was arrested, police said.

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    A woman who attended the event, Katie Kalisher, told CBS News that she encountered the alleged shooter right after hearing gunfire.

    “Then this man comes in … but he was covered in rain and just looking really distressed and scared,” Kalisher told “CBS Mornings.” “We were comforting him because we thought that he was just somebody out in the street looking for a safe place to stay because he heard some gunshots.”

    She said she talked to him to try to help him relax. “I asked him, ‘So, do you like the museum?’ And he’s kind of playing dumb with me,” she said about the interaction. “He goes, ‘Oh, what kind of museum is this?’ I told him, ‘It’s a Jewish museum.’ He asked, ‘Do you think that’s why they did this attack’ … referring to the rounds that we heard.”

    She said she told him she didn’t think so and asked if he was OK. Then, she said, “He reaches into his bag and pulls out a keffiyeh and says, ‘I did it. I did it for Gaza.’ And, just starts shouting, ‘Free Palestine.’”