Armed with an AR-15–style rifle,[1] the gunman, John Earnest, fatally shot one woman and injured three other people, including the synagogue's rabbi.

At approximately 11:23 a.m. PDT, a gunman, identified as 19-year-old John Earnest, entered the Chabad of Poway synagogue on the last day of the Jewish holiday of Passover, which fell on a Shabbat.

[2][3] Earnest carried a Smith & Wesson Model M&P 15 Sport II semi-automatic rifle and was wearing a tactical vest containing five magazines of ten rounds each.

[15] Jonathan Morales, an off-duty United States Border Patrolman who was a member of the synagogue,[16] opened fire and hit Earnest's car multiple times, but he fled uninjured.

[10] John Timothy Earnest (born June 8, 1999),[18] a then 19-year-old male from the San Diego neighborhood of Rancho Peñasquitos, was identified as the shooter.

[23] Earnest had recently expressed white supremacist views to his college classmates and family, including saying that he studied Adolf Hitler and admired the manifesto of the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings, and had made racist statements at a 2019 holiday party.

He said that Jesus, Paul the Apostle, Martin Luther, Adolf Hitler, Ludwig van Beethoven, "Moon Man" and Pink Guy were figures who inspired him to commit the shooting.

Earnest made a joking mention of PewDiePie and referenced "The Day of the Rope", an event from William Luther Pierce's neo-Nazi novel The Turner Diaries (1978), in which African Americans and Hispanics are executed and urged more violent attacks.

[28] Escondido police lieutenant Chris Lick told the media that no suspect had been determined yet and that it looked like the fire was started by a chemical factor.

[31][28][30] Police officers never reported the exact wording of the graffiti,[33] although it was later revealed to have said, "For Brenton Tarrant -t. /pol/" (referencing the perpetrator of the Christchurch shooting and 8chan's /pol/ board, to which both men posted their manifestos).

[33][32] Dustin Craun, executive director of the San Diego office of the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR), condemned the attack and asked the police for more security around the mosque and protection at Islamic institutions across California.

[28] President Donald Trump offered "deepest sympathies to the families of those affected" by the shooting, further saying that "[o]ur entire nation mourns the loss of life, prays for the wounded and stands in solidarity with the Jewish community.

[36][37] Vice President Mike Pence stated "We condemn in the strongest terms the evil & cowardly shooting at Chabad of Poway today as Jewish families celebrated Passover.

"[38] On May 2, 2019, during his remarks in the White House Rose Garden on the National Day of Prayer, President Trump invited Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein and the two men who had chased the shooter out of the synagogue to address the gathering.

[39] Goldstein was invited by Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon to speak on antisemitism before the UN General Assembly on June 26.

[40] 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and Eric Swalwell published statements condemning the attack.

"[42] The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum released a statement which read "[M]oving forward this must serve as yet another wake-up call that antisemitism is a growing and deadly menace.

"[44] President of Israel Reuven Rivlin wrote, "The murderous attack on the Jewish community during Pesach, our holiday of freedom, and just before Holocaust Memorial Day, is yet another painful reminder that anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews is still with us, everywhere.

Duke Kwon of the Presbyterian Church in America expressed concern that the shooter could articulate a Christian theology of personal salvation while also espousing anti-Semitism.

The murder charge includes a "special circumstance" that Earnest intentionally killed his victim (Gilbert-Kaye) because of her religion, which could incur the death penalty under California law.

[53] On May 14, Earnest was arraigned in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego on 109 federal charges: 54 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs using a dangerous weapon resulting in death, bodily injury and attempts to kill; 54 counts of hate crimes under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr.

Hate Crimes Prevention Act; and one count of damage to a religious property using fire for an earlier arson at Dar-ul-Arquam mosque in Escondido on March 24.

This date was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the San Diego County District Attorney's office announced it would seek the death penalty.