Rabbi came ‘face to face with this murderer’
San Diego grapples with synagogue shooting
POWAY, Calif. – Police increased security Sunday at houses of worship one day after a teen gunman killed one woman and injured a rabbi, a child and another man during Passover celebrations at a San Diego-area synagogue.
“We don’t condone threats and acts of violence against places of worship. We are a county that is welcoming of all faiths,” San Diego County Sheriff William Gore said after the shooting Saturday. President Donald Trump called the attack a hate crime and promised full federal cooperation.
Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, was killed in the shooting. Authorities said a 34year-old man and a young girl were struck by shrapnel.
Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who suffered defensive wounds to his hands, recalled the moment of terror when the shooter confronted him. Goldstein was in the middle of his Saturday sermon at the Chabad of Poway when he heard loud noises and became “face to face with this murderer, this terrorist” when he turned around, he said in a phone interview Sunday on “Sunday Today With Willie Geist.”
Goldstein said he put his hands up to protect himself and lost one of his fingers in the shooting.
“As soon as he saw me, he started to shoot toward me,” he said. “Then he ...
killed Lori Kaye right there on the spot.”
Witnesses said the gunman’s AR-15-style rifle apparently jammed, and he fled while being shot at by an off-duty Border Patrol agent attending services. Goldstein said that his synagogue, like many others, can’t afford a full-time armed guard and that he had welcomed the armed agent’s presence.
“I have lived through this horror through a reason,” Goldstein said on CNN, his Brooklyn accent still strong after 30 years in California. “Missing a finger is just a finger. But God didn’t want me to die yesterday. God wants me to continue on being his emissary.”
The suspect, John T. Earnest, 19, of San Diego is a nursing student at Cal State University-San Marcos who lived about 7 miles from the synagogue. Gore said Earnest posted an online “manifesto” in which he criticized Jews and also celebrated the slaying of 50 Muslims at shootings at two mosques last month in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The attack came exactly six months after 11 people were killed at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The manifesto echoes common white supremacist themes.
The suspect is accused of opening fire at the synagogue shortly after services began Saturday morning. Passover celebrations are among the most important in the Jewish faith.
“We will not be broken. This is not going to break us,” said Fred Nasseri, who attends services at the synagogue but was not there during the shooting.
Nasseri said Kaye was “very giving, kind. She was an angel . ... The community lost a great soul.”
The off-duty agent fired at the suspect during the attack, hitting his car. The suspect fled and was arrested without incident about 2 miles away.
Officials planned an increased law enforcement presence at synagogues and mosques in the area, but Gore encouraged the public to continue with scheduled services and events on Sunday.
Earnest is also being investigated in connection with an arson at a mosque in nearby Escondido last month, officials said.
Earnest and his family are members of the Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church, where Pastor Zach Keele Sunday spoke repeatedly during the service of the tragedy and the evil that had come to the congregation. The Earnest family is a prominent part of the congregation, and John Ernest, the suspect’s father, is listed on the program.
“We have more questions than we do answers,” Keele said during prayers. “We are numb.”
Goldstein said he prayed with his frightened congregation as they awaited help on Saturday.
“I just want to let our fellow Americans know we’re not going to let this happen here,” he told “Today.” “Not here in San Diego. Not here in Poway. Not here in the United States of America.”