Poway Synagogue Shooting Suspect to Appear in Court

SAN DIEGO (AP) – The 19-year-old suspect in a fatal shooting at a Southern California synagogue is scheduled to make his first court appearance on federal hate crime charges.

John T. Earnest will be escorted a few blocks Tuesday to the federal courthouse in downtown San Diego from a county jail, where he is being held on state charges of murder and attempted murder.

Earnest is accused of bursting into the Chabad of Poway synagogue on April 27 and opening fire with an assault rifle, killing one and injuring three.

An account in a federal affidavit describes a deeply disturbed man filled with hatred toward Jews and Muslims. He claims to have been inspired by attacks on mosques in New Zealand and the shooting at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue last fall.