Told of threat minutes before attack, FBI says
POWAY, Calif. — Federal authorities were notified about a threat just minutes before a gunman killed a worshipper and wounded three others at a Southern California synagogue, the FBI said Monday.
An FBI statement said that about five minutes before Saturday’s attack at the Chabad of Poway synagogue, it received multiple tips through its website and phone number about an anonymous post on social media that contained threats but “did not offer specific information about the post’s author or threat location.”
The FBI said its employees acted immediately to determine the author of the post, but the shooting took place “before the suspect could be fully identified.”
“The FBI thanks the alert citizens who saw and reported the post,” the statement said.
A tipster told The Associated Press that he called the FBI at 11:15 a.m. local time Saturday about the post. It linked to a manifesto that said the author was responsible for a March fire that blackened the walls of a
mosque in Escondido, about 13 miles north of Poway and about 30 miles north of San Diego.
The online manifesto was an anti-Jewish screed that praised the suspects accused of carrying out attacks on mosques in New Zealand that killed 50 people last month and at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue that killed 11 on Oct. 27.
The tipster, who refused to provide his name because of security concerns, said the call with the FBI lasted four or five minutes, and the shooting happened soon afterward. He described the FBI as quick and professional and said he doesn’t know what the bureau could have done.
John T. Earnest, 19, was charged with murder and attempted murder in Saturday’s attack on the crowd of about 100 people — larger than usual, because of the Passover holiday. He was also charged with arson in the mosque fire. He was expected in court today.
Earnest fled when his gun jammed, and an off-duty Border Patrol agent fired at him as he fled, missing him but striking the getaway vehicle, authorities said. Earnest surrendered a short time later.
Members of Earnest’s family released a statement Monday saying they were saddened by the attack, but that “our sadness pales in comparison to the grief and anguish our son has caused for so many innocent people.”
Earnest’s parents said their son and five siblings were raised in a family that “rejected hate and taught that love must be the motive for everything we do.” They said they were shocked and mystified.
“Our son’s actions were informed by people we do not know, and ideas we do not hold,” the family said in its first public comments.
They said they were cooperating with investigators to help “uncover many details of the path that he took to this evil and despicable act.”
“He has killed and injured the faithful who were gathered in a sacred place on a sacred day,” the family’s statement said. “To our great shame, he is now part of the history of evil that has been perpetrated on Jewish people for centuries.”
The Earnests, who are cooperating with investigators, said that they did not know what had motivated their son’s actions. “How our son was attracted to such darkness is a terrifying mystery to us,” they said.
The family does not plan to provide their son with legal representation, according to their attorney, Earll Potts. A public defender will likely be appointed.
‘EVERYBODY LOVED HIM’
Earnest was a star scholar, athlete and nationally recognized pianist whose embrace of white supremacy and anti-Semitism has dumbfounded the people closest to him.
Earnest made the dean’s list both semesters last year as a nursing student at California State University, San Marcos. In high school, he had stellar grades and swam on the varsity team.
His father, John A. Earnest, is a popular physics teacher at the public high school he attended in San Diego.
Owen Cruise, 20, saw the younger Earnest every day during senior year at Mount Carmel High School, when they were in calculus and physics together. They were also members of the school’s amateur radio club.
Earnest brought audiences to their feet when he played the piano at talent shows, Cruise said.
“Crowds would be cheering his name,” Cruise said Monday. “Everybody loved him.”
Earnest showed no signs of harboring dark thoughts or racist views, Cruise said, adding that Earnest had black and Jewish friends.
“He was very close to his dad,” Cruise said. “He always hung out in his classroom, came to see him at lunch. He always seemed like a nice guy. … He didn’t seem like the type of person who would go off the deep end.”
His father has worked at the school for 31 years and volunteered to help students with exams and homework, said Cruise, who praises his former teacher for having a big impact on his life. On the morning of the shooting, the elder Earnest was hosting a study hour for the Advanced Placement exam and brought cookies, Cruise said.
Cruise, now a sophomore at the University of California, San Diego, said Earnest lived at home and saw his parents every day.
“They only raised him to be the best man he could be,” Cruise said.
VICTIM REMEMBERED
The worshipper killed in the attack was remembered for her kindness Monday during a memorial service at the packed synagogue in Poway.
Lori Gilbert Kaye, 60, died after jumping in front of Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein to protect him. Goldstein was shot in the hand, while Noya Dahan, 8, and her uncle Almog Peretz suffered shrapnel wounds.
The Chabad of Poway was established in 1986, and Kaye was a founding member. In the three decades since it began, the synagogue has grown into one of the largest Chabad centers in the U.S., a 13,000-square-foot property with a sanctuary, meeting hall and offices for Jewish community groups in the Poway and Rancho Bernardo areas.
The synagogue is part of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a Hasidic Orthodox Jewish group that represents a small fraction of the more than 5 million Jews in the country. The organization with roots in 18th century Russia has been based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, N.Y., since the Holocaust. Its rabbis tend to wear tall hats with dark suits, keep long beards and adhere strictly to Jewish law.
But its influence outranks its size and the traditional faith of its leaders. That’s because Chabad rabbis have been sent to establish more than 1,000 religious centers in the U.S. and thousands more worldwide, focusing on reaching out to secular Jews and those living in places that would otherwise lack rabbis.
The movement today has more than 5,000 emissary families — usually a rabbi, spouse and children — serving in 100 countries. That includes every U.S. state and some 500 college campuses with Chabad centers.
Many of the houses are no-frills centers in homes or strip malls with small congregations of a few dozen people. Those minimal resources, and the tenets of the religion, make Chabad houses vulnerable to attack, according to Rabbi Didy Waks of Clinton, N.Y.
“We do not use electricity on the Sabbath, so there are certain security measures we cannot take,” he said.