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San Diego-area synagogue shooting appears to be hate crime, says Trump as gunman identified

San Diego-area synagogue shooting appears to be hate crime, says Trump as gunman identified

US President Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump on Saturday sent his sympathies to the families of the victims of a San Diego-area synagogue shooting, saying it appeared to be a hate crime and that authorities will "get to the bottom of it."

Trump was speaking with reporters outside the White House before leaving Washington for a rally in Wisconsin.

A gunman opened fire in the synagogue with an assault-style weapon on Saturday, killing one woman inside and wounding three other worshippers in a hate crime carried out on the last day of Passover, authorities said.

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First Lady Melania Trump tweeted her condolence following the incident, citing the Passover holiday.

The suspect, a 19-year-old white male whose identity was not immediately made public, fled the scene by car and was arrested a short time later when he pulled over and surrendered to police, authorities said at a news conference.

The gun violence at the Congregation Chabad synagogue in the town of Poway, California, about 23 miles (37 km) north of downtown San Diego, unfolded six months to the day after 11 worshippers were killed and six others were wounded by a gunman who stormed a synagogue in Pittsburgh yelling, "All Jews must die." The assailant in that incident was arrested.

Gunmen identified

The suspect, identified by police as John Earnest, 19, of San Diego, fled the scene by car and was arrested a short time later when he pulled over and surrendered to police, authorities said.

San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said investigators were examining a "manifesto" the gunman apparently left behind on social media along with other "digital evidence." Gore also said police and FBI were investigating Earnest's "possible involvement" in an unsolved arson fire at a nearby mosque about a month ago.

A rambling, violently anti-Semitic screed written by an individual calling himself John Earnest was found posted to the online text-storage site Pastebin.com and the file-storage site Mediafire.com. Links to the content on both sources were posted on the Internet message board 8chan.

In that letter, the author claimed credit for setting fire to a mosque in Escondido, a town about 15 miles (24 km) north of the synagogue attacked on Saturday.