A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

Get daily updates delivered right to your inbox

Poway synagogue shooter pleads guilty to 113 federal hate crimes charges

Poway+synagogue+shooter+pleads+guilty+to+113+federal+hate+crimes+charges

(JTA) — The man who opened fire on a synagogue in Poway, California in 2019, killing one and injuring three, has pleaded guilty to a 113-count federal hate crime indictment.

The guilty plea comes with a recommended sentence of life in prison plus 30 years. The charges the shooter faced carried a maximum sentence of the death penalty. The charges also relate to the shooter’s arson of a mosque a month earlier.

“The defendant entered a synagogue with the intent to kill all those inside because of his hatred for Jewish people, and days earlier used fire in an attempt to destroy another sacred house of worship because of his hatred for Muslims,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a statement Monday. “There is no place in American society for this type of hate-fueled violence.”

On April 27, 2019, the final day of Passover, John Earnest, a white supremacist, walked into the Chabad synagogue in Poway, California, near San Diego, and began shooting at worshippers. The attack occurred six months to the day after the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, which killed 11 people at prayer.

The shooter killed one woman, Lori Gilbert Kaye, and injured three others, including Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein and a child. In a manifesto, Earnest mentioned the shootings at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand six weeks earlier.

Two more fatal antisemitic attacks would occur later that year, in Jersey City and Monsey, New York.

“This nation stands with Lori Gilbert Kaye’s family and the survivors of these unspeakable acts of terror,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Randy S. Grossman in a statement. “We emphatically reject the defendant’s hate, racism and prejudice, and we hope the conclusion of this case brings some measure of comfort to all those affected by his heinous crimes.”


The post Poway synagogue shooter pleads guilty to 113 federal hate crimes charges appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

More to Discover