Federal officials have charged the suspected gunman in an April mass shooting at a California synagogue in which one person was killed and three injured with 109 total hate crime-related violations.
Additionally, 19-year-old John Earnest faces a charge over a fire deliberately set at an Escondido mosque in late March.
Under the federal charges, the suspect faces a possible death sentence.
In a federal complaint filed Thursday, the suspect allegedly called 911 after the April 27 shooting and told a dispatcher, “I just shot up a synagogue. I’m just trying to defend my nation from the Jewish people … They’re destroying our people … I opened fire at a synagogue. I think I killed some people.”
Federal officials said the suspect obtained his gun one day before the attack from a Federal Firearm Licensed dealer in San Diego, by way of Fort Worth, Texas.
Lori Kaye-Gilbert, 60, died in the shooting, and three others — Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, Almog Peretz and his 8-year-old niece — were injured.
