One person is dead after a shooting at a Jewish synagogue near San Diego.
The San Diego sheriff's department say 19-year-old John Earnest is in custody after the attack in Poway, California, which also left three people injured. Earnest has no prior criminal record.
- Christchurch terror attack: Teen granted bail for sharing objectionable material
- Christchurch shooting suspect to appear in court
Aaron Meleen from the sheriff's department said in a statement those injured were in "various states".
The attack occurred on the last day of Passover and also six months to the day of a shooting that occurred in Pittsburgh which left 11 dead at another Jewish synagogue.
"It’s a very important celebration for us. There’s lots of people inside, they’re praying," Minoo Anvari, a member of the congregation, told NBC 7. "Everybody was crying and screaming."
Poway mayor Steve Vaus told CNN he was confident the attack was anti-Semitic and was committed by "someone with hate in their heart, hate toward our Jewish community".
Links to Christchurch
NBC News reports the alleged gunman posted an open letter which referred to the Christchurch terror attack on website 8chan just hours before the attack.
The anti-Semitic essay was posted to 8chan along with a link to a Facebook page that said "a livestream will begin shortly". The post was reportedly almost identical to the one posted by the alleged Christchurch gunman.
The essay referenced both him and Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers as inspirations, and said the writer started planning the attack shortly after the Christchurch shootings.
The writer also claims responsibility for setting fire to a mosque in the Californian city of Escondido, which was accompanied by graffiti that referenced the Christchurch attack.
The alleged post has since been removed by the 8chan website, while a Facebook profile, referred to on 8chan as belonging to the alleged shooter, has also been taken offline. It's not known if the shooter was able to livestream the attack, like the Christchurch gunman did.
Police say they are investigating possible digital evidence of the attack along with the authenticity of the posted manifesto.
One Twitter user claims they saw the post and contacted the FBI hours before the attack.
"This was posted on a radical right wing website about five minutes ago there is about to be a mass shooting," Aric Victor posted.
The rabbi who was leading the service when the synagogue was attacked, Yisroel Goldstein, was shot and, according to The New York Post, lost two fingers.
Immediately following the Christchurch terror attack, Goldstein posted to his personal Facebook page to call out these types of attacks as "pure evil".
Newshub.
