by David Smith and Lauren Gambino at The Guardian
US attorney general says Chicago-based suspect believed to have acted alone in killing of couple at Jewish museum
The US justice department on Thursday charged the lone suspect in a brazen attack that killed two young Israeli embassy staff members outside the Jewish museum in downtown Washington DC with murder of foreign officials and other crimes.
Court documents released on Thursday charged Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, with the Wednesday night killings that left the US capital in shock and were condemned by world leaders as “horrible” and “antisemitic”. According to the filing, the suspect told police after his arrest: “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.”
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Jeanine Pirro, the interim US attorney for Washington, described the slate of charges against the defendant – which also include two counts of first-degree murder, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence – as an “initial” list of crimes. The killing, she said, was also being investigated as a “hate crime and a crime of terrorism”.
“We will add additional charges as the evidence warrants,” she said.
Rodriguez made his first court appearance on Thursday afternoon,…
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