Seth Conrad Rich, a 27-year-old Jewish staffer for the Democratic National Committee, was shot dead July 10 near his home in Washington, D.C.
In announcing the killing, police did not ascribe a motive, but the victim’s father, Joel, told the Washington Post that the police believe his son may have been the victim of a botched robbery.
The shooting took place in Washington’s Bloomingdale neighborhood, near the Capitol, about a block from the victim’s home. Rich was the voter expansion data director for the DNC; colleagues said that he was also engaged in Jewish outreach. “He wanted to make a difference,” his father, Joel Rich, told the Post.
“Our hearts are broken with the loss of one of our DNC family members,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC chairwoman and Florida congresswoman, said in a statement. “Seth Rich was a dedicated, selfless public servant who worked tirelessly to protect the most sacred right we share as Americans — the right to vote. He saw the great potential of our nation and believed that, together, we can make the world a better place.”
A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Rich was the boating education director and staff programming director at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin in 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile. A colleague and friend, speaking anonymously, said Rich was proud of his Jewish upbringing in Omaha. — jta