Poway Mayor Steve Vaus said, “This hate crime is not who Poway is. Poway will wrap its arms around all of its community, including our Jewish brothers and sisters here at the Chabad, and we will walk with them step by step through this, and we will all be better. Our hearts are broken, and there will be a hole in our heart for the life lost, and for those that were injured and scarred, but we will get through this together.”
The suspect was a member of Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The pastor of the church, Zach Keeled told CNN that Earnest was a member of the church for most of his life but he did not participate in youth or Sunday school activities. Keele condemned the suspect’s horrific behavior.
“We completely deplore what he did. It is not part of our beliefs, our practices, [and] our teachings in any way. Our hearts, our prayers, our tears go out to the victims. To all those wonderful neighbors at the synagogue, we pray for them. And it just saddens us that this horrible act of evil could come from someone we know,” said Keele.
