Too Much Hate In The Country

"We are a Jewish nation that will stand tall. We will not let anyone take us down. Terrorism like this will not take us down."
"[I saw] a young man standing with a rifle, pointing right at me. I couldn’t see his eyes. I couldn’t see his soul. [He raised his hands to protect himself and lost one of his fingers in the shooting.] Miraculously the gun jammed."
"[Lori Kaye was a] pioneering, founding member [of the congregation]. Lori took the bullet for all of us. She didn’t deserve to die."
Congregation rabbi Yisroel Goldstein

"I thought I heard shots, but I thought maybe it was a car. Then I heard it again, and I heard people screaming. I started to run outside and my wife yelled at me to call the cops instead."
"This kind of thing is getting too common. There's too much hate in the country right now."
Jake Padilla, Poway resident

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, center, arrives for a news conference at the Chabad of Poway synagogue, Sunday, April 28, 2019, in Poway, Calif. A man opened fire Saturday inside the synagogue near San Diego as worshippers celebrated the last day of a major Jewish holiday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

"We completely deplore what he [synagogue attacker John Earnest, a church congregant] did. It is not part of our beliefs, our practices, our teachings in any way."
"Our hearts, our prayers, our tears go out to the victims. To all those wonderful neighbors at the synagogue, we pray for them."
"We believe in lifting high the love of Christ to all people -- men, women, old and young from every tribe and denomination. This is a complete surprise. He was quiet, kept to himself, sweet guy. We had no idea. This a surprise to all of us."
Zach Keele, pastor, Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church

How sweet this 19-year old man is can be disputed. He was inspired, it seems, by a manifesto posted on the online message board Schan that the gunman in the mosque attack n Christchurch, New Zealand had posted. Leading John Earnest to post his own anti-Semitic screed on the same site before his armed attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue yesterday. The messages he received as a lifelong congregant of the Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church of equality and love evidently made less of an impact on his belief system than did that of a brief encounter with a message posted by a pre-massacre psychopath.

The concluding day of Passover was the day chosen for John Earnest to display his rejection of the message of love in favour of a more exciting message of hatred. He had evidently practised by setting fire to a mosque in Escondido, California a month before. Two men did their utmost to stop the carnage at the synagogue, one a new member of the Chabad congregation, an off-duty Border Patrol agent Jonathan Morales, as well as former soldier Oscar Stewart, who attempted to tackle the gunman when his gun jammed.

Mr. Morales was enjoined by the Rabbi to bring a weapon with him when he decided to join the congregation for Passover, to celebrate his newly-discovered Jewish roots, taking him from El Centro California to Poway. "We never know when we will need it" -- the protection -- he advised Mr. Morales presciently. As for 51-year-od Oscar Stewart, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department had praise for his intervention, when he rushed toward the synagogue after hearing gunfire, to confront the attacker, and deterred his intention to leave.

This was the point at which an off-duty Border Patrol Agent came on the scene, firing at the attacker's vehicle as it drove off. The gunman then called the California Highway Patrol with his location in Rancho Bernardo on Interstate 15 where a police officer en route to the synagogue, saw the gunman as he pulled over, exited his vehicle and surrendered to the police officer, his rifle sitting on the front passenger seat of his car. Had his AR-15-type weapon not malfunctioned there would have been more dead than 60-year-old Lori Kaye who had tried to shield Rabbi Goldstein.

There was no official guard stationed at the synagogue, with around a hundred people at the Passover service. When he entered, the gunman shouted that Jews were ruining the world. A young Israeli girl of 8 was wounded as well as a young man and the rabbi. Rabbi Goldstein had attempted to reason with the attacker before being shot in the hand. In the event, Lori Kaye's husband was also at the synagogue for the end-of-Passover service. A physician, he began tending to the wounded. And when he reached her, to attempt CPR, realizing it was his wife, he fainted.

"Apparently, God was looking after us because we got there a little later than normal."
"As we were getting out of the car, we heard gunshots. I thought maybe someone was stepping on those little plastic bubbles."
"She [Lori Kaye] can't do enough for people around her. If you are sick, she brings you food. She's a wonderful, wonderful person."
Nancy Levanoni, 80, Chabad congregant

A vigil for the victims of the Chabad of Poway shooting.

Sandy Huffaker/AFP/Getty Images