POWAY, Calif. — Services at the Chabad of Poway synagogue were underway Saturday morning when a white man holding a semi-automatic weapon entered.
By Kristina Davis, J. Harry Jones and Sarah Parvini
POWAY, Calif. — Services at the Chabad of Poway synagogue were underway Saturday morning when a white man holding a semi-automatic weapon entered.
“One guy was shooting at everybody and cursing,” said synagogue member Minoo Anvari, whose husband was inside when the shooting broke out.
Witnesses said Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein is among the injured, reportedly shot in the hand. He apparently continued with his sermon after being wounded, telling people to stay strong.
“One message from all of us in our congregation is that we are standing together, we are getting stronger,” Anvari said. “Never again. You can’t break us. We are strong.”
The violence, which Poway’s mayor said appeared to be hate-motivated, stunned the upscale suburb north of San Diego.
Cantor Caitlin Bromberg of Ner Tamid Synagogue, which is down the street from Chabad of Poway, said her congregation learned of the shooting at the end of their Passover services. Saturday marked the eighth and final day of Passover, a holiday that marks the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt and freedom from slavery.
