Explained | Who is Elias Rodriguez, gunman accused of shooting dead Israeli Embassy officials?

Chicago: Elias Rodriguez, a Chicago resident, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder and other crimes in the killings of two Israeli Embassy aides outside a Jewish museum in Washington.

By some accounts, Rodriguez, 31, led a life typical of a college-educated young professional in Chicago, residing in an apartment in a middle-class North Side neighborhood, with friends and family nearby.

But he was also increasingly active in left-wing politics, posting on social media and joining demonstrations in Chicago in opposition to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, large corporations and racism.

When Rodriguez was taken into custody after the shooting Wednesday night, he told police officers, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court.

Here’s what else we know about him.

A school and work life that raised no concerns.

Born and raised in Chicago, Rodriguez graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago, a school west of downtown that attracts many local residents.

Sherri McGinnis Gonzalez, a university spokesperson, said that Rodriguez attended from the fall of 2016 through the spring of 2018 and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree.

He lived in Albany Park, one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Chicago, on the city’s Northwest Side. It is known as a community that has long welcomed immigrants. A century ago, it was home to many Jewish families from Europe. It is now a draw for Latino, white and Asian people.

Rodriguez’s father, Eric Rodriguez, is a union member who appeared in a video for the Service Employees International Union this year, identifying himself as a federal employee with the Veterans Affairs Department and an Iraq War veteran. Eric Rodriguez said in the video that he was concerned about cuts that the Trump administration was making to the VA system.

Both of Elias Rodriguez’s parents, who live separately, declined to comment.

Elias Rodriguez bounced from job to job during his 20s. According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked as a writer for wikiHow, which publishes articles and quizzes on a variety of topics. He was a senior content associate for CouponCabin, a company based in Chicago that provides printable and digital coupons for discounts to consumers.

He later worked as an oral history researcher and production coordinator at a Black history site, and then took a job at the American Osteopathic Information Association, a trade group for osteopathic doctors.

“He enjoys reading and writing fiction, live music, film, and exploring new places,” one job biography read.

A turn to political activism on the left.

At the same time, Rodriguez had taken an active interest in politics. In 2017, he was photographed outside the home of then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Chicago’s North Side, wearing a checked shirt and backpack, and holding a sign that read, “$ for people’s needs, not Amazon!”

The demonstration was organised by the Answer Coalition, a group that opposes war and racism. The group was protesting efforts from Chicago officials to persuade Amazon to build a second headquarters in the city. The company ultimately chose the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington.

Rodriguez was quoted in an online article denouncing the officials’ effort, identifying himself as affiliated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

“The wealth that Amazon has brought to Seattle has not been shared with its Black residents,” he said, asking, “Do we in Chicago and all across the country want a nation of cities dominated and occupied by massive corporations where only the rich and white can live, and the vast majority of us must live on edges of the city and society living in deeper and deeper poverty?”

The Party for Socialism and Liberation on Thursday disavowed any connection between the organization and Rodriguez.

“We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the D.C. shooting,” the group said on social media site X. “Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL. He had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017. We know of no contact with him in over 7 years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.”

A post on social media Wednesday night from an account that The New York Times verified as belonging to Rodriguez was titled “Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home.” The post condemned the Israeli and U.S. governments and what it called atrocities committed by the Israeli military against Palestinians. The post did not refer directly to the shootings but sought to justify “armed action.”

Photographs on Thursday of the windows of what appeared to be Rodriguez’s apartment in Chicago showed two signs about Palestinians, including one that referenced the 2023 killing of a Palestinian American boy in Illinois.

Rodriguez was registered to vote in Illinois, and in 2020 donated $500 to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, records show.

Superintendent Larry Snelling of the Chicago Police Department said that Rodriguez did not have a criminal background.