Two survivors of the May 21, 2025, shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., have spoken publicly about their ongoing struggle with trauma and survivor's guilt on the first anniversary of the attack, according to CNN.
At the time of the attack, Szkop, now 29, and Talmoud, now 25, had been just a short distance from Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, fellow Israeli Embassy staff members who were shot and killed while the group departed an American Jewish Committee event. Szkop said she mistook the first gunshots for fireworks before sprinting across the crosswalk and sliding beneath a parked SUV. Talmoud arrived under the vehicle shortly after. Both women were unaware their colleagues had died until hours after the attack.
Rodriguez, 31, faces a federal indictment on terrorism-related counts that include premeditated murder and hate crimes resulting in death, charges to which he has entered a not guilty plea. Prosecutors filed court papers last week alerting a D.C. federal court that the Justice Department would pursue capital punishment in the event of a conviction, according to the Los Angeles Times. A trial date has not been scheduled.
Talmoud told CNN that survivor's guilt has stayed with her. "That first month I kept saying, 'I don't understand why I didn't at least walk away with one bullet,'" she said. "That survivor's guilt, it really does sit with me."
