VIDEO | Elias Rodriguez: What we know so far about man who shouted 'Free Palestine'
Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Chicago resident, is the suspected shooter in the deadly attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., which left two 'Israeli' embassy staff members dead.
Authorities identified Rodriguez following the shooting on Wednesday, where he reportedly shouted “Free Palestine” just before confessing to the crime.
Video footage from the scene shows Rodriguez in handcuffs, repeatedly yelling “Free Palestine” as police took him away. Eyewitnesses reportedly said he declared, “I did it for Gaza.”
His arrest came amid investigations by Washington, D.C. police and the FBI, who are also examining a manifesto attributed allegedly to him, posted online shortly before the attack.
The manifesto, approximately 900 words long and dated May 20 — a day before the shooting — lays out a political justification for the violence as a form of protest against the war in Gaza.
In the statement, the unverified author argues that “armed action is not necessarily military,” often serving as a symbolic “theater and demonstration.” He condemns those who “stand against genocide” as having “abandoned their humanity.”
The text paints a complex picture, acknowledging that perpetrators of such violence can simultaneously be “loving parents, dutiful children, generous friends, or kind strangers” capable of “moral strength” but also “beasts” in their actions.
The manifesto claimed that such violence would have been considered incomprehensible to most Americans 11 years ago during the 2014 Gaza war (“Operation Protective Edge”) but now sees it as “the only sane thing to do.”
He concluded the statement expressing love for his parents, sister, and family before ending with the slogan “Freedom for Palestine.”
Rodriguez’s online history showed voiced support for Palestine and he frequently shared content from Jewish Voice for Peace, a left-wing, anti-Zionist group.
Previously connected to Chicago’s Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Rodriguez’s association with the group ended in 2017. The PSL publicly rejected any ties to the shooting but confirmed his brief involvement years ago. During his activism, Rodriguez protested racial injustice and corporate influence, opposing Amazon’s expansion plans in Chicago and advocating for justice in police brutality cases such as the killing of Laquan McDonald.
Professionally, Rodriguez worked in administrative roles, including at the American Osteopathic Information Association, which expressed shock following his arrest. He was also affiliated with The HistoryMakers, a nonprofit chronicling African American history, where he served as an oral history researcher and held a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago. His profile described interests in fiction, music, film, and travel.
A 2017 fundraiser for Rodriguez to attend a resistance conference in Washington, D.C. detailed his opposition to “genocidal imperialist wars,” reflecting on his father’s deployment to Iraq as an Army National Guardsman.
Investigators continue to probe Rodriguez’s motives as they seek to fully understand the incident and its broader implications.
