This young (UIC) graduate has destroyed his life and two young people’s lives who were working and fighting for the cause of peace.

What a waste of three young lives. As the song goes, “What a difference a day makes.” This should not have happened.

DC shooting suspect Elias Rodriguez was member Chicago far-left group

Elias Rodriguez, in checkered shirt, seen in coverage of a protest outside the home of Rahm Emanuel in 2017. (screen capture: liberationnews.org)

. “The suspect chanted, ‘Free, free Palestine,’ while in custody,” she said.

Rodriguez attended a 2017 protest outside the home of then-Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel as a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, according to the group’s Liberation newspaper.

On Wednesday, the Marxist-Leninist group urged followers online to sign a pledge aimed at stopping Israel’s “genocide” against Palestinians. The 2017 protest was not thought to be tied to Emanuel’s Israeli heritage.

According to a LinkedIn profile Rodriguez worked since 2024 as an administrative specialist for the Chicago-based American Osteopathic Association.

Prior to that he was an oral history researcher for The History Makers, an online repository for accounts of African American lives started by Carnegie Mellon University. A profile on the History Makers website says Rodriguez was born and raised in Chicago and “enjoys reading and writing fiction, live music, film, and exploring new places.”

According to the profile, Rodriguez is a resident of the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Illinois, graduating in spring of 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in English.

A local organizer with Black Lives Matters identified a social media post of Rodriguez – titled “Chicago Demand Justice for Laquan, Not Money for Amazon,” and said Rodriguez was a supporter of the organization, who attended several protests that Black Lives Matters organized after the shooting death of Black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014.

That organizer for Black Lives Matter expressed sadness over the shooting in D.C., and called it an unfortunate incident.

Meantime, CBS News has identified other social media accounts where Rodriguez expressed frustration over media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

A social media post dated May 20, which is best described as anti-Israel, stating that non-violent protests have not worked, and ending with the phrase ”Free Palestine.”

Based on posts shared on Rodriguez’s alleged X account, he appears to have participated in anti-Israel protests in Chicago following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel. In one such post, the X account shared footage from a large protest held in the city on October 21, 2023.

Research by the ADL Center on Extremism shows that Rodriguez was previously affiliated with two prominent anti-Israel organizations, ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and participated in multiple ANSWER and PSL protests in Chicago from late 2017 through early 2018.

D.C. museum suspect Elias Rodriguez

Rodriguez, identified as a member of ANSWER’s Chicago chapter, speaks to reporters during a protest against the city’s bid for an Amazon headquarters in January 2018. (screenshot/Newsy/Scripps News)

Rodriguez spoke at an October 2017 protest organized by ANSWER, the People’s Congress of Resistance and Black Lives Matter Women of Faith, demanding justice for Laquan McDonald, who was shot and killed by police in Chicago in 2014. In an article published about the protest on the PSL website “Liberation News,” Rodriquez was described as being affiliated with PSL and photographs show Rodriquez holding an ANSWER sign.

Rodriguez also participated in a series of ANSWER protests against the city of Chicago’s bid to become the site of a new Amazon headquarters. In local news media coverage of a January 2018 protest on this issue, he was identified as a member of ANSWER.

D.C. museum shooter holds ANSWER Coalition sign in 2017

Rodriguez (fifth from right) is seen holding an ANSWER Coalition sign in a photograph published by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) on its website “Liberation News” in an article about an October 2017 protest demanding justice for Laquan McDonald and criticizing Chicago’s bid for an Amazon headquarters. (Screenshot/Liberation News)