POWAY, Calif. — Three people were injured and one person killed Saturday, in a shooting at a synagogue where worshippers were celebrating the last day of Passover in San Diego County, the San Diego Sheriff's Department said.
San Diego Sheriff William Gore said the suspect, identified as 19-year-old John T. Earnest, used "an AR15-type assault weapon and opened fire (on the synagogue)." Earnest is in custody and being questioned by the FBI and homicide investigators. At this time deputies are working to get search warrants for his residence and for Chabad of Poway.
All four shooting victims were taken to Palomar Hospital. Three of them — a girl, a 57-year-old rabbi, and a 34-year-old man — are in stable condition. The fourth victim, a 60-year-old woman, died of her injuries at the hospital, according to the San Diego Police Department.
The woman who died and the rabbi were and hit by gunfire, while the other two were hit by “shrapnel from bullets,” according to Dr. Michael Katz, a trauma doctor from the Department of Surgery at Palomar Medical Center Escondido.
The shooting happened around 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Congregation Chabad in Poway, just over 20 miles north of San Diego. There were indications that the AR-type assault weapon might have malfunctioned after the gunman fired numerous rounds inside the synagogue, Sheriff Gore said.
An off-duty Border Patrol agent working as a security guard fired at the shooter as he ran away, missing him but striking his getaway vehicle, according to Sheriff Gore. Shortly after fleeing, San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said that Earnest called 911 to report the shooting. When an officer reached him on a roadway, "the suspect pulled over, jumped out of his car with his hands up and was immediately taken into custody," Nisleit said.
Earnest has no criminal record, but investigators were looking into a claim he made in an online manifesto about setting a fire at a mosque in nearby Escondido last month, Gore said. There was damage but no injuries.
Gore said authorities were reviewing copies of Earnest's social media posts and were investigating the attack as a possible hate crime in the city of Poway.
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."
"I want you to know, this is not Poway," Poway Mayor Steve Vaus said before media and investigators Saturday. "The Poway I know comes together as we did just a few weeks ago, at an interfaith event. We always walk with our arms around each other, and we will walk through this tragedy with our arms around each other."
The shooting investigation will be lead by the San Diego Sheriff's Department, with assistance from the San Diego Police and the federal investigation team.
Minoo Anvari, a member of the synagogue, told media outlets that her husband was inside during the shooting. She said he called to tell her the shooter was shouting and cursing.
She called the shooting "unbelievable" in a peaceful and tight-knit community.
"We are strong; you can't break us," Anvari said.
The Poway shooting came exactly six months since a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue killed 11 people in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.
Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said Saturday that their thoughts were with those in the San Diego area and "we understand this heartache all too well."
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Gov. Gavin Newsom offered their condolences to the Jewish community after the shooting, with Newsom saying, "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."
At the White House, President Donald Trump offered his sympathies Saturday, saying the shooting "looked like a hate crime."
"Our entire nation mourns the loss of life, prays for the wounded and stands in solidarity with the Jewish community," Trump later said at a rally in Wisconsin. "We forcefully condemn the evils of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated."
This is a developing story, for the latest from the San Diego County Sheriff, click here.
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