In San Diego, California, funeral services are being held today for Lori Kaye, a 60-year-old Jewish congregant who was shot dead Saturday in the latest attack by a white supremacist on a house of worship. On Saturday morning, a man with an assault rifle entered the Chabad of Poway synagogue and opened fire during a service marking the last day of Passover. Kaye died after she reportedly jumped in front of a hail of gunfire to shield Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein from the onslaught. Rabbi Goldstein was shot in both hands, losing his right index finger. He spoke to reporters Sunday in an emotional news conference.
Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein: “I walk into the lobby, and I see Lori laying on the floor unconscious, and her dear husband, Dr. Howard Kaye, who’s like a brother to me, is trying to resuscitate her. And he faints, and he’s laying there on the floor next to his wife. And then the daughter, Hannah, comes out screaming, 'Daddy and Mommy, what's going on?’ It’s the most heart-wrenching sight I could have seen.”
Two other congregants were wounded in the attack. Police say the shooter fled the scene but was arrested a short time later. They identified him as 19-year-old John T. Earnest, a student at Cal State San Marcos. Prosecutors are investigating the shooting as a hate crime, after the suspect published an anti-Semitic manifesto online referencing recent massacres at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and a pair of mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Earnest also claimed responsibility for an arson attack on a mosque in San Diego County last month.