A white male shooter opened fire during Saturday morning Shabbat services on the last day of Passover, killing one woman at the Altman Family Chabad Community Center, and reportedly wounding three others, including Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein who was addressing the Chassidic congregation at the time.
Witnesses said that Rabbi Goldstein was shot in the hand, that another man and a 10-year-old girl were among the victims taken respectively to Pa Caabad Poway Shootinomar Medical Center and Rady Children’s Hospital, and that following Shabbat services, the congregation had been planning to hold a celebratory Passover luncheon.
Witnesses said that Rabbi Goldstein may have had two fingers shot off his hand, yet continued to deliver his sermon in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Meanwhile, an off-duty Border Patrol Agent attending the service chased the suspect out of the synagogue and fired at his car, according to witnesses.
Sheriff Bill Gore, whose agency provides protection to the City of Poway, told a news conference that a combination of law enforcement agencies including the FBI were interviewing nearly 100 witnesses who were inside the synagogue when the shooting occurred.
Identities of the victims were not immediately disclosed.
San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit, who joined Gore at a news conference, said that shortly after escaping the synagogue, the shooter telephoned the California Highway Patrol to turn himself in, and that a San Diego Police Officer made the arrest at Rancho Bernardo Road and Interstate 15. According to Nisleit, a semi-automatic AR15 rifle was on the front seat of the shooter’s car. The shooter was identified as a 19-year-old male who lives in the Rancho Penasquitos neighborhood of the City of San Diego, which neighbors Poway. The shooter later was identified as John P. Earnest of San Diego. He reportedly had issued a manifesto in which he claimed to have set a small fire at the Islamic Center of Escondido last month.
In an interview with MSNBC, a shaken Poway Mayor Steve Vaus called the shooting a “hate crime,” which would mean that if the shooter is found guilty, he could face increased penalties because hate crimes not only affect specific victims but are intended to intimidate an entire community.
In the confusion immediately after the shooting, two children were reported missing, but they were subsequently found and reunited with their parents, witnesses said.
One witness who had been inside the synagogue told KFMB-TV that the gunman was “just focused to kill. I saw the murder and the hate in his eyes.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, in a news conference on the south lawn of the White House, echoed Vaus’s description of the shooting as a hate crime. He offered the nation’s sympathies to the victims, and congratulated law enforcement on their quick response. Subsequently, he tweeted: “Thoughts and prayers to all of those affected by the shooting at the Synagogue in Poway, California. God bless you all. Suspect apprehended. Law enforcement did outstanding job. Thank you!”
There were also comments from Democratic presidential candidates: Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, himself Jewish, called the shooting “horrific” and said bigotry and violence must be eradicated. Sen. Kamala Harris of California commented “Anti-Semitism is real in this country and we must not be silent.” U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts said, “We have a hate problem in America. We have a gun problem….”
Jonathan Greenblatt, executive director of the national Anti-Defamation League, told MSNBC reporters that the shooting came six months after the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, in which 11 persons were murdered and seven others wounded by a white supremacist.
Greenblatt described the shooting as “tragic beyond words” and said that the world is “living in a moment of fear.” He noted that anti-Semitic incidents have increased in the country. Likewise in recent times there have been attacks against a mosque in New Zealand, Catholic churches in Sri Lanka, and African-American churches in Louisiana
Mayor Vaus told a news conference that the shooting is uncharacteristic of Poway. In his city, he said, “we always walk with our arms around each other. … We will walk through this tragedy with arms around each other.”
The regional office of the Anti-Defamation League sent grief counselors to nearby Poway High School to meet with grieving community members.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World