Photo: SANDY HUFFAKER / AFP / Getty Images
For: EFE
Sunday, November 17
Author of California synagogue shooting that left one dead, sentenced to life in prison
The gunman who opened fire on a synagogue in Poway, California, killing one person and wounded several more in 2019 was sentenced this Tuesday by a federal court to life imprisonment more 30 years, sentence that adds to the one already issued by a state judge who had destined him to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
John Timothy Earnest, from 22 years, who killed a woman and injured three other people in the anti-Semitic attack , pleaded guilty to state and federal charges he faced for the shooting of 27 April 2019 against the Poway synagogue and the fire of the Dar-ul-Arqam mosque in Escondido, California, about a month before the shooting.
Earnest pleaded guilty last September to a federal indictment of 113 hate crime and weapons-related charges, among others.
According to court documents, after several weeks of planning, Earnest arrived at Poway’s Chabad synagogue, where members were congregating, and fired an AR rifle – 15 which was fully loaded, hitting four people.
After Earnest emptied the first magazine, several assistants lunged at him forcing him to flee. Soon after, Earnest called the police and confessed that “he had just shot a synagogue.”
Lori Gilbert-Kaye, aged 60, died in the attack, while the founding rabbi of the synagogue, Yisroel Goldstein; Noya Dahan, 8, and her uncle Almog Peretz, from 34 years, were wounded in the attack on Poway, a small town in 41, 000 inhabitants a 30 miles north of San Diego (southern California).
The authorities also found an “open letter” signed by Earnest in which he acknowledged his hatred of Jews and promised to defend his “European race.”
He also explained that he made the decision to carry out the shooting in the synagogue after learning of the March massacre of 2019 in New Zealand, where 50 people were killed and as many injured when a white supremacist opened fire on people present in two mosques.
The cond This Tuesday ena marks the final chapter in the double trial faced by Earnest and joins the lifetime term that was imposed last August in a state court.
“All people in this country should be able to freely exercise their religion without fear of being attacked,” said the Attorney General of United States, Merrick B. Garland., In a statement following today’s sentencing.
“The heinous crime of this defendant was an assault on the fundamental principles of our nation. The Department of Justice remains steadfast in its commitment to confront illicit acts of hate and to hold perpetrators of hate-fueled violence accountable. ”
The court today recommended that Earnest serve his sentence in federal jail.
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