Rodriguez’s charges were laid out in a criminal complaint. He was informed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh during an initial appearance in federal court Thursday that some of the charges against him carry the possibility of the death penalty or life in prison, officials said in the briefing later that afternoon.

In the years before he was accused of killing two Israeli Embassy employees, the suspect in the fatal shootings was an active participant in Chicago’s left-wing protest scene, speaking out against police violence and a proposed Amazon headquarters.