PASSOVER HORROR
GUNMAN KILLS ONE, WOUNDS THREE AT SAN DIEGO SYNAGOGUE
A hate-filled teenage gunman opened fire Saturday in a crowded suburban San Diego synagogue, killing one person and wounding at least three others, including a rabbi, as worshipers prayed on the last day of Passover, police said.
John Earnest, 19, who apparently boasted of his racist views in an online manifesto, blasted an assault rifle inside the Chabad of Poway synagogue when the sanctuary was filled with about 100 congregants.
After his gun apparently jammed, Earnest fled. An offdutyBorderPatrolagentworking as a security guard opened fire but missed Earnest as he ran from the sanctuary and raced away in his car.
The alleged gunman was later pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy on a local highway and arrested, police said.
Despite being wounded, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein refused to end his Passover sermon, witnesses said.
Law enforcement sources said Earnest claimed credit for a March arson attack on a Southern California mosque at which graffiti praised the mass shooting by an Islamophobic gunman in Christchurch, New Zealand.
A rambling anti-Semitic screed written by an individual calling himself John Earnest was found posted to the online text-storage site Pastebin.com and the file-storage site Mediafire.com. Links to the content on both sources were posted on the Internet message board 8chan.
Earnest also reportedly planned to livestream the synagogue attack like the New Zealand killings were, according to a post on the social media site Reddit. It’s not clear why he didn’t do so.
San Diego County Sheriff William Gore said police were trying to authenticate the manifesto.
Goldstein, who grew up in Brooklyn and whose father was a cornerstone of the Chabad Hasidim in Crown Heights, was struck in the hand and taken to a nearby hospital along with a girl and another man. They were all in stable condition.
An elderly woman died of her wounds. She was not immediately identified.
President Trump said the attack was believed to be a hate crime and offered his condolences to victims and others affected by the shooting.
“We’ll get to the bottom of it,” Trump said, before shifting gears to promote a campaign rally in Wisconsin.
Mayor Steve Vaus of Poway, a suburb that’s a 30-minute drive from d owntown San Diego, said the shooter’s words indicated the attack was a hate crime. Vaus didn’t elaborate.
Steve Arnold said he is a Reform Jew but Goldstein welcomed non-Orthodox Jewish people to the synagogue. “They open their doors to everyone,” he told CNN.
Goldstein is the Jewish chaplain with the San Diego County sheriff’s department, the same law enforcement agency called to investigate the shooting.
Authorities taped off the synagogue and set up a command post at a nearby elementary school.
Prayers are held at 10 a.m. each Saturday at the synagogue, which is affiliated with the Brooklyn-based ChabadLubavitch Hasidic movement.
There’s a children’s program at 11 a.m., according to the synagogue’s website, with a traditional meal to follow.
Some Jews also hold Passover Seder meals on the final day of the holiday, which celebrates freedom.
Witnesses said Goldstein was reciting the yizkor prayer for Jews who have passed away when the gunman opened fire. That made the attack especially chilling to many.
“It’s a time when we should feel most safe,” Rabbi Josh Stanton told CNN.
The attack came exactly six months after a hate-filled gunman shot and killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Jews in the Steel City wasted little time offering condolences to the victims of the latest outrage.
“Our hearts are in California as we continue to stand together against hate,” Pittsburgh’s Rodef Shalom Congregation said in a Facebook post.