Monday on ABC’s The View, co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar reacted to the shooting that took place during a Passover service that killed one person and wounded three others at the Chabad synagogue of Poway, California on Saturday.
It’s no secret that the ladies on The View despise President Trump, but to blame him for a gunman armed with a semiautomatic rifle walking into the synagogue and opening fire on the congregation goes too far.
The 19-year-old suspect, identified as John T. Earnest, of Rancho Penasquitos, was arrested a short time later.
A 60-year-old member of the Poway temple, Lori Gilbert-Kaye, was killed in the shooting, and Goldstein, 57, Noya Dahan, 8, and Almog Peretz, 34, were injured, according to authorities.
The Courier Journal reports:
Many children were in the area where the four people were shot outside the main worship room, and Goldstein said he rushed the congregation’s children to safety.
Before the shooter could fire off more rounds, witnesses said his gun appeared to jam and he fled the scene.
An off-duty Border Patrol officer who was working as a security guard inside the temple fired on the gunman as he fled and hit the shooter’s car.
Authorities said the suspected gunman later called police and gave his location along Interstate 15. He was pulled over and arrested without incident.
While waiting for police to arrive, Goldstein said he gave a sermon to congregation members huddled in fear, even while his hands bled.
“I got up there and I just spoke from my heart, just giving everyone the courage to know — it was just 70 years ago during the Holocaust we were gunned down like this and I just want to let our fellow Americans know we’re not going to let this happen here,” he told NBC. “Not here in San Diego. Not here in Poway. Not here in the United States of America.”
Litvin said his friend has been a rabbi in California for more than 30 years and wanted to give his congregation a message of peace before leaving for the hospital.
The shooting happened just prior to the highlight of the Passover service in which congregants remember those who have died, Litvin added.
“His congregation was obviously unnerved, and the rabbi felt it was only right as their spiritual leader to calm them and send them back to their homes with a message of peace,” Litvin said.
Litvin said he has previously visited the Poway congregation, which is part of the Chabad network that has about 4,000 synagogues around the world, including three in Kentucky.
Moving forward, Litvin said a Tuesday evening interfaith gathering at the Jewish Community Center in Louisville will honor those impacted by the latest attack on a house of worship.
The showing of unity will encourage all to perform good deeds and help others in any way “as a response to the darkness and the evil that the (Poway shooter) perpetrated,” Litvin said. Continue reading here.
