By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington was wearing a body camera that captured video of the killings from his close-range perspective, prosecutors disclosed in a court filing on Friday.
Elias Rodriguez purchased the body-worn camera online and arranged for it to be delivered to the hotel where he was staying in Washington before the May 21 shootings, according to the filing. Prosecutors said the transaction demonstrates the premeditated nature of the crime.
Rodriguez was indicted in August on federal hate crime and murder charges in the killings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum.
Elias Rodriguez shouted “Free Palestine” during the shooting and then went inside the museum and said, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed,” according to court documents.
Prosecutors haven’t announced if they will seek the death penalty for Rodriguez if he is convicted. They have described the killings as calculated and planned, saying Rodriguez flew to the Washington region from Chicago ahead of the museum event with a handgun in his checked luggage.
Defense attorneys are asking for more time to gather and present U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office with “mitigation evidence” that could weigh against seeking the death penalty in Rodriguez’s case. The department set an Oct. 20 deadline for that written submission, but Rodriguez’s lawyers want it extended to March 19.
“The investigation and presentation of mitigating evidence is of paramount importance in any capital-eligible case,” defense attorneys wrote. “After all, mitigating evidence can be the difference between a life sentence and a death sentence.”
The judge presiding over the case has scheduled a hearing next Wednesday on that defense request, which the government opposes.
“The decision whether and when to seek the death penalty is an executive prosecutorial function beyond the Court’s authority, and courts routinely decline requests to intrude into that exclusive executive prerogative,” prosecutors wrote,
A police officer’s body camera also recorded Rodriguez’s arrest inside the museum. Prosecutors have turned over copies of the video footage to his defense attorneys.
Milgrim was a U.S. citizen. Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen working in the U.S. The young couple were about to become engaged.
