Poway Synagogue Shooter To Be Charged With Federal Hate Crime: Sources
Flowers in front of Chabad of Poway, where a gunman killed one and injured three two weeks ago. Image by Getty
By Ari Feldman May 9, 2019
The man who killed one woman and injured three people at a synagogue in Poway, California, will face federal hate crime charges, a source told The San Diego Union-Tribune.
While the information came from a source close to the investigation, prosecutors said that a conference to announce “civil rights violations and hate crimes” in the case would be held Thursday morning.
The charges, including charges of murder and attempted murder, could make the shooter, a 19-year-old, eligible for the death penalty.
The shooter, John Earnest, faces both state and federal charges, and may be tried concurrently for both — an unusual, but not unheard of, occurrence in serious cases, the Union-Tribune reported. The shooter who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018 is also facing both state and federal charges.
Earnest has also been charged in connection with an arson fire at a mosque in a nearby town.
Earnest’s family has said it will not pay for a defense attorney.
Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $325,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
