Law enforcement spent hours Thursday searching the northside apartment of Elias Rodriguez, the Chicago man suspected of killing two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington DC.
Hours after a team in camouflage carrying guns went into the Albany Park building at Troy and Leland, plainclothes agents continued their search.
John Wayne Fry lives down the hall from Elias Rodriquez and describes him as quiet, friendly and normal.
That assessment is based on limited conversations with the man who, Fry says, has a Hello Kitty sign outside the door of the apartment he shares with a woman.
Talking to a group of reporters just outside the yellow crime scene tape in front of the building, Fry pointed to a picture in Rodriguez’s courtyard window.
It reads “Justice for Wadea” below a picture of the 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy who was stabbed to death by his landlord in Plainfield in 2023.
71-year-old Fry says he wishes he had talked to Rodriquez about the war in Gaza and shared what he learned from the Vietnam War.
“You don’t stop war with guns and bombs. You stop wars by going to your neighbors. Talking to your neighbors”, Fry says.
He says he’s disappointed and saddened by the shooting - adding the couple killed to a list of people who’ve died in the war in Gaza.