Poway’s gunman, John T. Earnest, will spend his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Armed with an AR-15 style rifle, Earnest, 19 at the time, killed Lori Gilbert Kaye, 60, who was there to honor her late mother, and injured three others, including the rabbi and a 8 year old child. daughter, while they worshiped inside a synagogue in Poway, a suburb of San Diego. They were among more than four dozen people inside the synagogue at the time.

Always. Hannah Kaye has said she refuses to dehumanize or hate Earnest in the same way he did for her mother.

“I would like to take this opportunity to recognize, humbly, the possibility that I can stand before my mother’s killer and be able to speak to her directly and honor my mother,” she said.

Dr Howard Kaye, the victim’s husband of 32 years, called Earnest a “bad man” who killed a “superior person”, an “accomplished woman” and a “charity girl” known for his acts of kindness .

“It takes the bite out of his murder,” he said.

Ellen Edwards remembers the day she was told her sister had been killed. She let out a cry. She remembered struggling to break the news to their father, and the sadness and horror that had filled her those days.

“I will never forget the look on his face when we told him,” she said of her father. “Lori was the apple of his eye.”

Another sister, Randi Grossman, called Earnest the “worst example of humanity” who sought “the best of humanity.”

“Lori was the center of her family, the center of her community,” she said.

Others spoke of the long-term effects of the attack, including recurring pain, trauma and nightmares. Some lamented that Earnest was spared the death penalty, but others wished him a long life in the isolation and solitude of a prison cell.

In a statement released in July, the district attorney’s office said it hopes the life in prison for Earnest is “an appropriate resolution to this violent hate crime and we hope it will bring a measure of justice and closure. to the victims, their families, their friends and the rest of the world “. community. “

The decision to accept his plea, the office said, came after consulting with the families of the shooting victims.

That’s one count for everyone who was inside the synagogue, according to federal prosecutors. In connection with the case, prosecutors referred to an open letter posted online shortly before the shooting which bore Earnest’s name.

The letter was filled with anti-Semitic and white nationalist sentiments, and the author spoke about the planning of the attack in Poway, citing the gunman in the deadly 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh as inspiration. – and the gunman who killed the faithful. in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.