Photo Credits: Chabad
As NBC News reports, a man walked into a Chabad synagogue near San Diego and opened fire, leaving one woman dead and three other people injured on Saturday, the last day of Passover. A girl and two men are hospitalized and in stable condition.
Lori Gilbert Kaye was killed on Saturday in the shooting and she was a loyal friend and follower of the Jewish faith, according to her fellow congregants. “She is a steadfast member, supporter, philanthropist – just a kind soul,” Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was injured in the shooting, told host Willie Geist on “Sunday Today.”
The suspect, John T. Earnest, 19, of San Diego, was in custody according to authorities. Earnest is a student at the California State University San Marcos, the school’s president said. “This individual was with an AR-type assault weapon and opened fire on the people inside the synagogue,” said San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said.
“And I look to the entrance and I see a guy – he was like 5’6, 5’7, white, with like glasses with a vest on and I think it was an M16, “Almog told reporters. “And he was just standing there, like shooting, shooting, shooting everybody.”
The suspect was surrendered to police and was being held without bond in the San Diego Central Jail on one count of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree attempted murder.
“There is no indication at this point in the investigation that Earnest was part of an organized group,” San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said Sunday afternoon. “We believe he acted alone and without outside support in carrying out the attack.” Earnest is also being investigated in connection with an arson attack on a mosque in nearby Escondido on March 24. Authorities also said graffiti left at the scene of the fire referenced the March 15 attack in New Zealand that killed 50 Muslim worshipers.
Interesting thing is that this mass shooting happened exactly six months after the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
President Donald Trump has offered “deepest sympathies to the families of those affected.” On Saturday at the White House, Trump said the shooting “looked like a hate crime” and called it “hard to believe.”
