The organizer of the event in which two employees of the Israeli embassy received a deadly shot on Wednesday night in Washington, DC, said that, without knowing, “she seemed evil in the eyes” when she and others tried to comfort a man who initially thought he was an distressed witness who was later arrested in relation to the shooting.
Jojo Drake Kalin told Sky News, the international partner of NBC News, that the moments after the shots sounded in the capital Jewish Museum, a man who seemed distressed was allowed inside the building because the security guard thought that “he was a victim, an innocent spectator of this attack. And being the very important group that we are, we all thought it was the case. And I really gave him water.”
Kalin did not know that he was face to face with Elias Rodríguez de Chicago, who was arrested by the police in relation to the shooting of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky.
Moments later, Kalin realized that she was “looking bad in the eye, that he was a murderer.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the authorities believe that Rodríguez, who was arrested on Wednesday night, acted alone. He has not been accused of a crime starting Thursday morning.
The event had Jewish and non -Jewish leaders from 30 embassies under the subject “turn pain into a purpose.”
“They gathered us to talk about the construction of bridges,” Kalin said. “So it is painfully, painfully ironic that at one time we were thinking about the construction of bridges, someone entered with such hatred and destruction.”
“We wanted to counteract the narrative ‘we against them’ and unite in shared humanity.”
The suspect shouted “free and free Palestine” after being put into police custody, where he “implied” that he shot Milgrim and Lischinsky, said Washington’s police officer, Pamela Smith.
The victims left the event at the museum around 9 pm, said Yechiel Leiter, Israel ambassador to the United States. He said Lischinsky had bought a engagement ring and intended to propose on the couple’s next trip to Jerusalem.
