US prosecutors add hate crime charges in synagogue shooting
SAN DIEGO -- Federal officials announced Thursday that they have filed 109 hate crime charges against the man suspected of opening fire in a Southern California synagogue and said he called a 911 dispatcher afterward to report that he had done it to "defend my nation" against the Jewish people.
The gunman, identified as 19-year-old John T. Earnest, killed a woman and wounded an 8-year-old girl, her uncle and Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was leading a service at the Chabad of Poway synagogue on the last day of Passover, a major Jewish holiday.
The federal charges include murder for the killing of 60-year-old Lori Kaye, 60, who was hit twice as she prayed in the foyer. It also includes a charge for the attempted murder of 53 others.
