On April 27th, 2019, then 19-year-old John T. Earnest stormed the Chabad of Poway Jewish Center in San Diego County, California. He had an AR15 assault-style rifle and five magazines of ten round bullets in each and was wearing a tactical army vest.
He started shooting.
In the blink of an eye, Earnest murdered 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye Z"L and injured three others including Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein and an 8 year old girl.
Earnest meticulously planned his attack. He executed it on the last day of Passover, which was also a Shabbat, to ensure a maximum number of attendees at the Chabad.
Minutes after the shooting, Earnest called 911 and confessed he shot up the synagogue to "save white people." "I’m defending our nation against the Jewish people, who are trying to destroy all white people" he stated.
Just hours prior to the attack Earnest posted hate speech-laden manifesto on 8chan under his own name, John Earnest. 8chan is a forum utilized by extremists to post their hateful and violent manifestos.
He uploaded a photo of a man resembling himself holding a rifle titled "beware the fury of righteous men", and attached a link to a horrifying "open letter" he wrote.
In his posted manifesto, Earnest asks "Is it worth it for me to live a comfortable life at the cost of international Jewry sealing the doom of my race? I do not care about the debt-based currency that Jews like to pretend is money. I do not care for the bread and circus that Jewry has used to attempt to pacify my people. I would die a thousand times over to prevent the doomed fate that the Jews have planned for my race."
He continues "Every Jew is responsible for the meticulously planned genocide of the European race. They act as a unit, and every Jew plays his part to enslave the other races around him—whether consciously or subconsciously."
In his 6 page tirade, Earnest blames the Jewish people for controlling the banks, media, and the government. He holds Jews responsible for the international slave trade, for the killing of Jesus Christ, and for murdering Christians in Syria.
Earnest’s manifesto also mentioned setting fire to a mosque in Escondido, just 15 miles away from the Poway Chabad, which he actually executed a month before the synagogue deadly attack. The arson attempt was extinguished causing only minor damage to the building.
The FBI stated it just learned about the horrific manifesto five minutes prior to the synagogue attack, didn’t connect it to the burning mosque in Escondido, and wasn't able to stop Earnest on time.
On April 30, 2019, Earnest was charged in San Diego County with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder. All four charges included hate crime and gun allegations. The murder charge included a special aggravating circumstance that Earnest intentionally killed Gilbert-Kaye Z"L because of her Jewish religion - a crime that carries the death penalty under California law.
On Friday, September 30th, 2021, Earnest, now 22, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 121 years to life and another 16 years as part of a plea agreement reached with the San Diego County District Attorney's Office, sparing him from the death penalty.