Poway synagogue shooting

A shooting occurred on April 27, 2019, at Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California, United States, a city which borders the north inland side of San Diego, on the last day of the Jewish Passover holiday, which fell on a Shabbat. Armed with an AR-15–style rifle, the gunman, John Earnest, fatally shot one woman and injured three other people, including the synagogue's rabbi. After fleeing the scene, Earnest phoned 9-1-1 and reported the shooting. He was apprehended in his car approximately two miles (3.2 km) from the synagogue by a San Diego police officer. A month before the shooting, Earnest had attempted to burn down a mosque in Escondido.

In September 2021, Earnest was sentenced by a state court in San Diego County to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 121 years to life and another 16 years as part of a plea agreement. In December, he was sentenced in federal court to life in prison with no chance of parole, plus 30 years, with the federal and state life sentences running consecutively instead of concurrently.

At approximately 11:23 a.m. PDT, a gunman, identified as 19-year-old John Earnest, entered the Chabad of Poway synagogue on the last day of the Jewish holiday of Passover, which fell on a Shabbat. Approximately 100 people were inside the synagogue at the time.

Earnest carried a Smith & Wesson Model M&P 15 Sport II semi-automatic rifle and was wearing a tactical vest containing five magazines of ten rounds each. In the foyer, he shot and killed 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye with two bullets, and then wounded Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who had founded the congregation. According to witnesses, Gilbert-Kaye had tried to shield the rabbi from the gunman. Earnest then turned to a side room occupied by several people, including a number of children. He fired into the room, wounding one man with a bullet to the leg, and his 8-year-old niece.

He fired eight to ten rounds before his rifle jammed or malfunctioned, which prevented additional casualties. Two members of the congregation ran toward the shooter. Earnest then fled the synagogue, entering a Honda sedan. All the injured were expected to recover. Goldstein, who had been shot in the hand, lost his right index finger from the shooting, despite four hours of surgery. After Earnest fled, Goldstein spoke to the congregation despite his injury, telling them to stay strong. Jonathan Morales, an off-duty United States Border Patrolman who was a member of the synagogue, opened fire and hit Earnest's car multiple times, but he fled uninjured.

Shortly thereafter, the shooter phoned 9-1-1 and reported the shooting himself. Earnest was apprehended approximately two miles (3.2 km) from the synagogue by a San Diego police officer responding to the shooting. Earnest left his car and surrendered, and was taken into custody without incident. The rifle, a tactical helmet, and five loaded 10 round magazines, were recovered from Earnest's car. Earnest was wearing a tactical vest when he was arrested. Surveillance cameras at the synagogue captured video of the shooting. The attack occurred exactly six months after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

John Timothy Earnest (born June 8, 1999), a then 19-year-old male from the San Diego neighborhood of Rancho Peñasquitos, was identified as the shooter. He was a 2017 graduate of Mt. Carmel High School and a nursing school student at California State University San Marcos. Officials said he had no previous criminal record or contacts with police, and no known connection to any white supremacist group. Earnest was a member of the Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church, which is affiliated with the theologically traditionalist Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Earnest had recently expressed white supremacist views to his college classmates and family, including saying that he studied Adolf Hitler and admired the manifesto of the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings, and had made racist statements at a 2019 holiday party. In the weeks before the shooting, two other nursing students reported Earnest to a professor, and an investigation was opened. However, as he had made no criminal threats, he was not expelled or arrested. Prosecutors stated his radicalization started roughly 18 months before the shooting occurred.