Prosecutors: The attacker of the synagogue had 50 bullets not fired

POWAY, California – The man accused of attacking a synagogue in southern California fired only eight to ten bullets on sixty bullets he had before his gun was blocked, prosecutors said Tuesday.

John T. Earnest, 19, pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder in the shooting incident that occurred on Saturday at a Passover service at Chabad of Poway Synagogue . One woman was killed and three injured, including the rabbi.

Earnest was arrested shortly after the attack with 50 non-fired bullets, a tactical vest and a helmet, prosecutors said during his indictment.

At the hearing, an eyeglass Earnest stood behind a glass panel, dressed in prison blue and showing no apparent emotion. He uttered one word – "yes" – to waive his right to a quick preliminary hearing.

The judge scheduled a pre-trial hearing on May 30 and denied bail, calling Earnest an extreme threat to public safety.

Earnest was an accomplished student, an athlete, and a musician whose adherence to white supremacy and anti-Semitism stunned his family and others who thought he knew him well.

Last year, he was listed on the Dean's list as a student of nursing at California State University in San Marcos. In high school, he earned excellent marks, swam in the university team and admired the applause of his classmates for his piano solos at talent shows.

It seems that Earnest has radicalized in the last two years. He is also accused of arson in connection with an attack last month against an Escondido mosque.

Owen Cruise, 20, saw Earnest every day in his last year at Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego when both were in math and physics together. They were also both in the amateur radio club of the school.

Earnest's piano performances seduced the audience.

His father, John A. Earnest, is a professor of popular physics at Mt. Carmel, where he has been working for 31 years.

"The way John T. acted is not representative of how he was raised," Cruise said. "They are an exceptional family, some of the best people I've ever met."

The suspect's parents stated that their son and their five siblings had been raised in a family that "rejected hatred and taught that love should be the motivation of everything we do".

"To our shame, it is now part of the history of evil that has been perpetrated against the Jewish people for centuries," said parents Monday in their first public comments. "Our son's actions have been informed by people we do not know and ideas we do not remember."

The parents, who cooperate with the investigators, refused to provide legal representation to their son and he was represented by a public defender.

Earnest broke into the synagogue on the last day of Passover, a great Jewish holiday celebrating freedom, and opened fire with the help of an assault rifle on the crowd. about 100 people.

According to authorities and witnesses, he escaped when the rifle was stuck, thus avoiding an army veteran and a border patrol officer on leave who l 's s,,,,,,,,,,,,, 39 39 39 39 39 has followed. He called 911 to report the shot and made it shortly thereafter.

Lori Kaye, founding member of the congregation, was murdered. Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein was shot in the hand, while Noya Dahan, 8, and his uncle Almog Peretz were injured by shrapnel.

Kaye, 60, was commemorated Monday for her kindness at a commemorative ceremony in the crowded synagogue of Poway, an affluent suburb north of San Diego.

An online article written by a person posing as John Earnest and published shortly before the attack, expressed hatred against Jews and praised the perpetrators of mosques attacks in New Zealand killing 50 people last month and at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh killed 11 27.

Earnest attended 8chan, a dark corner of the Web where dissatisfied people in mainstream social media often display extremist, racist and violent views.

"It's been a year and a half since I've been hiding, but what I've learned here is priceless – it's an honor," he wrote.

Earnest, who obviously aimed to broadcast the attack, said he had planned the attack for four weeks.

"If you had told me just six months ago that I would, I would have been surprised," Earnest wrote.

The FBI said it received information about a message posted on social media, about five minutes before the 11:30 am attack, threatening violence against Jews.

The advice provided to a FBI website and hotline included a link to the anonymous publication, but did not provide specific information about its author or the location of the threat. The office said that the employees immediately tried to determine who wrote it, but that the shootings occurred before they could establish their identity.

___

Associate Press Editors Michael Balsamo in Washington, R.J. Rico in Atlanta and Amy Taxin in Poway contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the rabbi's first name is spelled Yisroel, not Yishoel.