John Earnest, the 19-year-old man detained in Saturday’s deadly synagogue shooting in San Diego, was a student at Cal State University San Marcos,…
John Earnest, the 19-year-old man detained in Saturday’s deadly synagogue shooting in San Diego, was a student at Cal State University San Marcos, school officials said.
Earnest was being questioned by the FBI and homicide authorities. San Diego Sheriff William Gore said authorities were poring over his social media accounts and a letter that Gore described as a «manifesto» posted online around the time of the attack.
Gore said officials were working to verify the posting’s authenticity and did not offer details on any motive. But the letter supposedly details the shooter’s hateful motivations and his reasons for targeting members of the Jewish faith.
In the letter, posted on an online text storage site called Pastebin, the author identified himself as a 19-year-old nursing student with the same name as the suspect.
It said in part: «I can already hear your voices. ‘How could you throw your life away? You had everything! You had a loving family. You had great friends. You had a church. You were doing well in nursing school. You could have gone so far in your field of study. You could have made so much money and started a happy family of your own.'»
On Saturday evening, San Diego Police had cordoned off the streets near what was believed to be Earnest’s home, some 7 miles southwest of the Chabad of Poway synagogue. Gore, the sheriff, said deputies were serving a search warrant at his home.
Gore said in a tweet that authorities had found «no prior contact» between law enforcement and Earnest.
San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said that as one of his officers was on the way to the shooting at Chabad of Poway, he overheard on the scanner that the suspect had called into police, saying «he was just involved in this shooting» and giving his location along Interstate 15.
