A teenage gunman who wrote a hate-filled manifesto on Saturday opened fire at a synagogue in California, killing one person and injuring three others as worshipers marked the final day of Passover, authorities said.
The shooting in the town of Poway, north of San Diego, California, came exactly six months after a white supremacist killed 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue — the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in US history.
San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said those wounded included the rabbi — who had injuries to both index fingers — as well as a girl and 34-year-old man who were injured by shrapnel.
A 60-year-old woman died from her wounds.
Gore identified the suspect, who was arrested after fleeing the scene, as 19-year-old John Earnest and said that he had no prior arrest record.
Earnest burst into the Chabad of Poway synagogue — where there were about 100 people — shortly after 11:20am and opened fire with an assault weapon that appears to have malfunctioned, preventing him from inflicting more harm, Gore said.
An off-duty border patrol agent who was at the synagogue at the time of the shooting opened fire on the gunman as he was fleeing, striking his car, but missing the suspect, he added.
The man was eventually apprehended by a San Diego police officer who had been monitoring dispatch radio and raced to the scene, San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said.
“He clearly saw the suspect’s vehicle. The suspect jumped out with his hands up and was immediately taken into custody by the San Diego Police Department,” Nisleit said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the “atrocious” incident, calling it “an attack at the heart of the Jewish people.”
The injured were Israeli citizens, an Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said, adding that their condition was “good.”
Authorities were examining Earnest’s social media activity and establishing the authenticity of an anti-Semitic open letter he apparently published on a far-right message board hours before the attack, Gore said.
“We have copies of his social media posts and his open letter and we’ll be reviewing those to determine the legitimacy of it and how it plays into the investigation,” he said.
The manifesto, seen by reporters, is similar to one posted on the same message board by Brenton Tarrant, a white supremacist who was behind the March 15 mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 50 people dead.
The hate-filled letter lauds Tarrant’s actions and that of the Pittsburgh shooter, and claims responsibility for a fire at a mosque in California a week after the Christchurch shootings.
Gore said police and the FBI were investigating Earnest’s “possible involvement” in the March 24 pre-dawn arson fire at the Islamic Center of Escondido, a town about 24km north of Poway.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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