Synagogue sought security funds before attack

Leaders wanted gates at building’s front door

POWAY, Calif. — A gunman fired his semi-automatic rifle at Jewish worshippers after walking through a Southern California synagogue’s open front door, a spot that synagogue leaders determined last year needed improved security.

The Chabad of Poway synagogue applied for a federal grant to install gates and more secure doors to protect that area. The $150,000 was approved in September but got awarded in late March.

“Obviously we did not have a chance to start using the funds yet,” Rabbi Simcha Backman said.

Backman, who oversees security grants for the 207 Chabad institutions across California, declined to provide details on the planned security improvements or to speculate whether they might have changed the outcome of Saturday’s attack.

The shooter killed a woman and wounded an 8-year-old girl, her uncle and Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was leading the service on the last day of Passover.

Backman said the synagogue north of San Diego is considering asking authorities to allow some of the money be used to hire security guards.

The synagogue doesn’t have guards now. But after a gunman massacred 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last October, rabbis of California’s Chabad organization, including at the Poway synagogue, began asking members who were trained law enforcement professionals to carry their weapons at services, Backman said.

The congregation also received training from Poway on responding to a shooter, and Goldstein applied for a concealed-carry permit.

On Saturday, an off-duty Border Patrol agent who attends the synagogue fired at the gunman as he fled, hitting his vehicle. The 19-yearold suspect, John T. Earnest, has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges.