The man suspected of shooting and killing a young couple outside D.C.'s Capital Jewish Museum was let inside the museum and spent 15 minutes with Jewish people there before admitting he was the one who fired the deadly shots they had heard moments before, two women who were there told News4.
An event focused on humanitarian diplomacy and bringing aid into Gaza had just ended at 9 p.m. when, minutes later, people in the entryway of the museum heard two rounds of gunshots go off outside.
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WATCH HEREPaige Siegel said she remembered thinking, "That was too close. Something feels wrong."
Siegel said she went to the museum's front entrance and was telling the security guard to lock the doors when a man came inside who looked like he was in distress and was possibly a victim of the shooting.
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SIGN UP "Obviously, [the security guard is] being a human. She's trying to, like, help this guy," Siegel said. "And because I'm over there trying to be like, 'We need to lock the doors,' I go up to him. I say, 'Are you OK?' and he goes, 'Call the police, call the police. Yes, I'm OK.'"
"Like, he was off like instantly. I just knew something was wrong, but of course if you see someone who's just been nearly shot on the street, you'd also be out of whack a little bit," Siegel said.
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"I think everyone's instinct was just to help. So I really wasn't alarmed," said Sara Marinuzzi, who was also near the entry to the museum.
They still didn't know at that moment that Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were the victims of the shooting. The young couple had just left the event hosted by the American Jewish Committee.
"They started herding us into, like, a hallway once they stopped letting people in and out," Marinuzzi said.
Siegel said the man, who was later identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, was with her and her friends for 15 minutes.
"There's cops in the building. We are corralled into an area to be safe from a shooter that's on the loose outside. We're getting away from the glass and we're in, like, an area with him. It's horrible," she said.
Siegel said at one point her friend brought him a glass of water because he seemed so distressed.
"One of my friends goes, 'Do you need a glass of water?' Because he, like, was still shaken and he goes, 'Yeah, that'd be great, thank you.'"
Not long after, Siegel asked him if he knew where he was and told him, "You're at a Jewish museum."
"And immediately, he took, like, 10 steps back, started screaming, 'I did it! I did it! I did it for Gaza!' talking about the shots that we had just heard," she said. "And he reaches for his backpack and at that moment, time paused. I was, like, we are about to be murdered."
Siegel said the suspect pulled out a red and white kefiiyeh, a headdress traditionally worn by some men in the Middle East, and he yelled "Free Palestine!" as a police officer and a man took him outside.
Siegel said she was horrified they had been in close proximity with the suspected shooter.
"He sat amongst us. Like, we were caring for him," Siegel said.
"I don't know how Jewish people can be protected in America right now. This is just crazy. There was security guards all over the building. You had to register, you had to show [identification]. Like, what else can we do to protect ourselves?"
