Two Israeli Embassy employees, a man and a woman, were shot and killed Wednesday night as they exited the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., officials said. A suspect is in custody.
The male victim was an Israeli diplomat and the female victim was an Israeli Embassy employee, two law enforcement sources told CBS News, and they were fatally shot as they left an event at the museum. The sources said the shooting appears to have been a targeted attack.
In a late-night news conference, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said the shooting was reported at 9:08 p.m. local time as both victims were exiting an event at the museum.
Bowser said the suspect was initially "observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum" before he approached a group of four people, "produced a handgun," and shot the victims.
The shooting occurred near an FBI office building in the 300 block of F Street NW, the DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department told CBS News.
Responding officers arrived at the scene to find the victims with gunshot wounds, unconscious and not breathing, officials said.
"We believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect who is now in custody," Smith said.
The suspect, a 30-year-old Chicago man, entered the museum immediately following the shooting and was arrested by museum security, the police chief reported.
"The suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered," Smith said, adding that he "implied that he committed the offense."
Smith said that he "chanted 'free, free Palestine,' while in custody."
"Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC," Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote on X.
Other employees of the Israeli Embassy who were at the event were also injured, the sources said. The shooting was on F Street, near the FBI's field office.
"Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC," Israeli Embassy spokesperson Tal Naim Cohen wrote on X.
Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, also wrote in a social media post that the shooting occurred "outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum."
Danon wrote that two other Israeli Embassy employees were wounded in the shooting, but that number has not been confirmed by authorities.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X that she was "on the scene of the horrible shooting outside the Washington, DC Capital Jewish Museum."
FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on social media that "my team and I have been briefed on the shooting tonight in downtown DC outside the Capital Jewish Museum and near our Washington Field Office." Patel said the FBI was working with Metropolitan police on the investigation.
"There is no ongoing threat to public safety," the FBI Washington Field Office wrote on X.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
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Kierra Frazier
Kierra Frazier is a news editor for CBS News & Stations.