Suspect in killing of 2 Israeli Embassy staffers in US could face death penalty

US Attorney for Washington, DC, Jeanine Pirro, did not rule out the death penalty Thursday for the suspect in the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in May, Anadolu reports.

“There will be a rigorous process, after which the capital case section in the Attorney General’s Office will advise the Attorney General (Pam Bondi) and the Attorney General herself will make a decision regarding whether or not this office will seek death against Elias Rodriguez,” Pirro said at a news conference.

The Justice Department has a “very rigorous” internal process for reviewing cases to determine whether the death penalty is “appropriate,” she said.

Her remarks came after a federal grand jury charged Elias Rodriguez, 31, with nine counts Wednesday, including a hate crime resulting in the deaths of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim.

Rodriguez, 31, shot the couple multiple times outside the museum in Washington, DC, and before being arrested he reportedly said, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.”

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Pirro said violence against anyone in the district will not be tolerated, “especially violence, which has hate at its core and is the genesis of violence.”

“The president (Donald Trump) put me here to do a job, to clean up the district, to make sure that crime doesn’t overshadow this phenomenal city,” she said. “I promise you justice will be swift, and it will be certain.”

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Metropolitan Police Department.

It is being prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the DC with assistance from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.