The organizer of the event where two Israeli Embassy staffers were fatally shot Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., said she unknowingly “looked evil in the eyes” when she and others tried to comfort a man they initially thought was a distressed witness who was later arrested in connection with the shooting.
JoJo Drake Kalin told Sky News, NBC News’ international partner, that moments after shots rang out at the Capital Jewish Museum, a man looking distraught was allowed inside the building because the security guard thought “he was a victim, an innocent bystander to this attack. And being the well-meaning group that we are, we all thought that was the case. And I actually gave him water.”
Kalin did not know she was face-to-face with Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, who was arrested by police in connection with the shooting of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky.
Moments later, Kalin realized she was “looking evil in the eye, that he was a murderer.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said authorities believe that Rodriguez, who was arrested Wednesday night, acted alone. He has not been charged with a crime as of Thursday morning.
The event featured Jewish and non-Jewish leaders from 30 embassies under the theme “Turning Pain Into Purpose.”
“We were gathered to talk about bridge-building,” Kalin said. “So it’s painfully, painfully ironic that at a time we were thinking about bridge-building, someone came in with such hate and destruction.”
“We wanted to counter the ‘us vs. them’ narrative and come together in shared humanity.”
The suspect shouted “Free, free Palestine” after being taken into police custody, where he “implied” that he shot Milgrim and Lischinsky, Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith said.
The victims were leaving the event at the museum around 9 p.m., said Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States. He said Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring and was intending to propose on the couple’s upcoming trip to Jerusalem.
