Police investigated an open letter apparently shared online by 19-year-old John Earnest, the suspect in a San Diego synagogue shooting that left one woman dead and many others injured.
The teen was taken into custody after the shooting at the Chabad of Poway Jewish Congregation, according to the San Diego County Sherrif’s Department.
60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye died in the attack. The three injured victims were identified as: 8-year-old girl visiting form Israel, her 34-year-old uncle Almog Peretz, and Rabbi Yisroel Golstein.
Earnest, a talented piano player, is a nursing student at California State University. He was a dean’s list student and has no known criminal record.
The teen was armed with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle but an armed off-duty Border Patrol agent who was inside the synagogue returned fire at him. The shooter retreated and called 911 before surrendering to police.
Shared to an online forum and littered with racist and anti-Semitic language, the document he posted online was similar to one posted on the same website by the suspect arrested after the mass shooting inside two mosques in New Zealand last month.
The manifesto’s author claimed to have been motivated by the Christchurch massacre and Pittsburgh shooting in which a white supremacist killed more than 10 people.
Like the New Zealand shooter, the 4,000-word document cited white nationalist conspiracy theories and biblical verses and also claimed responsibility for a fire at a mosque in a nearby city.
“If you told me even 6 months ago that I would do this I would have been surprised,” he wrote. “I’m just a normal dude who wanted to have a family, help and heal people, and play piano.”
He also stated that his end goal is to prompt the government to start confiscating guns, predicting that a civil war will follow. The author also revealed he had been planning the attack for a month.
He also revealed he doesn’t support President Trump, calling him ‘anti-White’ and ‘Jew-loving.’
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