Man with assault weapon opens fire in San Diego County synagogue; woman dies and 3 are injured

POWAY — Authorities say a woman died and three other people were hospitalized after a shooting at a synagogue outside San Diego on Saturday, the last day of Passover. A 19-year-old man, said to be armed with an assault rifle, was arrested.

San Diego County Sheriff William Gore said at a news conference that a white man entered Chabad of Poway and opened fire on worshippers with an AR-type assault weapon. There were indications the weapon might have malfunctioned during the attack, Gore said.

Update #1: A man has been detained for questioning in connection with a shooting incident at the Chabad of Poway synagogue. @SDSOPoway Deputies were called to Chabad Way just before 11:30 a.m. There are injuries. This is a developing situation.

— Poway Station (@SDSOPoway) April 27, 2019

Gore said an off-duty Border Patrol agent believed to be inside the synagogue shot at the suspect as he fled. The sheriff said the agent didn’t hit him but struck his car.

San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said the 19-year-old suspect called police to report the shooting and an officer heard it on a police scanner, saw the suspect and pulled him over. Nisleit said the suspect got out of his car with his hands up and he was taken into custody without incident. He was later identified as John Earnest of San Diego and Gore said he’s being investigated in a fire at a mosque in nearby Escondido last month.

Gore said a woman died from her injuries at the hospital. A girl and two men were in the hospital, information on their conditions was not immediately available, though officials said they were stable. One of the men is the synagogue’s rabbi.

Derryl Acosta, a spokesman for Palomar Health Medical Center Hospital, said the four patients were admitted around 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

President Donald Trump  offered “deepest sympathies to the families of those affected.

At the White House, Trump said Saturday that the shooting “looked like a hate crime” and called it “hard to believe.” He spoke from the South Lawn before flying to a rally in Wisconsin.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Gov. Gavin Newsom also offered their condolences to the Jewish community.

Newsom said “no one should have to fear going to their place of worship.”

Pelosi said on Twitter that she stands with the Jewish community against “this act of hate.”

The mayor of Poway, who tweeted that he got a call from the president offering help, also denounced what he called a hate crime.

“I want you know this is not Poway,” Mayor Steve Vaus said. “We always walk with our arms around each other and we will walk through this tragedy with our arms around each other.”

 

The shooting came  exactly six months since a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue killed 11 people. A truck driver who authorities say expressed hatred of Jews was charged in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. He pleaded not guilty to the Oct. 27 rampage at the Tree of Life synagogue.

Minoo Anvari, a member of the congregation whose husband was in the Poway synagogue during the shooting, told reporters, “There’s lots of people inside, they’re praying. Everybody was crying and screaming.”

Gore said he had no details on the shooter’s motive. Authorities said they were reviewing copies of his social media posts.

A person identifying himself as John Earnest posted an anti-Jewish screed online about an hour before the attack. The poster described himself as a nursing school student and praised the suspects accused of carrying out deadly attacks on mosques in New Zealand last month and at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue Oct. 27.

California State University, San Marcos, confirmed Earnest was a student on the dean’s list and said the school was “dismayed and disheartened” that he was suspected in “this despicable act.”

There was no known threat after the man was detained, but authorities boosted patrols at places of worship as a precaution, Nisleit said.

The shooting happened as the congregation gathered for Passover, a weeklong commemoration of the deliverance of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.

Minoo Anvari told CNN that she’s a member of Chabad of Poway and her husband was inside during the shooting. She said he called to tell her the shooter was shouting and cursing and she called the shooting “unbelievable” in a peaceful and tight-knit community.

“We are strong, we are united, they can’t break us,” she said.

 

Also, the Pittsburgh synagogue that six months ago was the site of the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history held a vigil and offered its sympathy after another deadly shooting Saturday at a synagogue near San Diego, saying such violence “must end.”

“It was only six months ago to the day that we became members of that tragic club of community-based shootings to which no one wants to belong,” read a statement from Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.

“We know first-hand the fear, anguish and healing process such an atrocity causes, and our hearts are with the afflicted San Diego families and their congregation. We will not give in to H(asterisk),” the statement read.

“These senseless acts of violence and prejudice must end,” it continued. “Enough is enough!”

Dozens of Pittsburgh residents gathered Saturday evening for the vigil of song and prayer on a corner outside the synagogue, joined by Mayor Bill Peduto and Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who himself survived the October attack on Tree of Life.

Peduto tweeted a picture of the vigil, accompanied by text that read: “We gather. Again. Always. Until we drive hate speech & acts of hate out of our city, our state, our nation, our world.”