What We Know About the DC Museum Shooting

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were days from a possible engagement. But Lischinsky never got the chance to pop the question. As the staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, left an American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum late Wednesday, they were shot dead.

• They were identified Thursday by Israel's government. "We will not be deterred by terror. We will continue our mission across the globe, with unwavering commitment to represent Israel with pride," reads a post on X.
• Police sources indicate the suspected shooter, a 31-year-old Chicago resident who allegedly admitted to carrying out the killings in the name of Palestine, shot the couple as they were leaving the museum with two others, per the Washington Post.

• Lischinsky was a research assistant in the Israeli Embassy's political department, while Milgrim organized missions and visits to Israel, the Post reports. Lischinsky is an Israeli citizen and Milgrim is American, reports the AP.
• Lischinsky bought a ring this week and planned to propose to Milgrim next week in Jerusalem, said Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the US, per the BBC. But "instead of walking you down the aisle, we are walking with you to your graves," an embassy rep wrote on X.
• The FBI is investigating the case as a possible hate crime. Israeli officials labeled the case a "terrorist" attack motivated by antisemitism and "false accusations" that Israel is complicit in genocide.
• DC Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said the agency did not have prior notice of "any type of terrorist act or hate crime." As for the suspect, "we don't see anything in his background that would have put him on our radar."

• The suspect entered the museum after the shooting and was mistaken for a bystander, according to witnesses. "People were calming him down, bringing him water, taking care of him," one tells the BBC. "Little did we know he was somebody that executed people in cold blood."
• Armed police and FBI agents raided the suspect's apartment in Chicago's East Albany Park early Thursday, per NBC Chicago. The windows were adorned with two signs about Palestinians, one of which referenced the 2023 hate crime killing of a 6-year-old boy in Chicago, per the New York Times.
• Chicago Alderman Debra Silverstein said city police would increase patrols in certain parts of the city "out of an abundance of caution," though "there is no known threat to our local Jewish community," per NBC.

(More DC museum shooting stories.)