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1 Killed, 3 Injured in "Hate Crime" Chabad Synagogue of Poway Shooting; Four People Were Shot, Including an Adult Woman Who Died of Her Injuries. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired April 27, 2019 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Today is the last day of Passover. And shortly before noon, local time, just North of San Diego, Police say a 19-year-old man entered the congregation Chabad synagogue and began shooting.
Police confirmed that one person is dead and three others are injured in what the mayor is calling a hate crime. The suspect, then called 911, identified himself to police and surrendered. The mayor of Poway where this happened says, despite the horror his town will stay strong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR STEVE VAUS, POWAY, CALIFORNIA: I want you to know this is not Poway. The Poway I know comes together as we did just a few weeks ago in an interfaith event. We always walk with our arms around each other and we will walk through this tragedy with our arms around each other.
We have a deep appreciation for those who showed courage at the Chabad, deep appreciation for the law enforcement agencies that responded so quickly. We will get through this. Our thoughts and prayers will be with the families and those who are investigating. Poway will stay strong and we will always be a community that cares for one another.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: CNN has been on top of this coverage since it started in California. Let's bring in now our National Correspondent Ryan Young. Ryan, hello to you. What more can you tell us about what happened.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Don such a tough story when you think about this. Right now investigators still have to talk to about 100 people who were left behind after this shooting. There was a service going on at that synagogue and apparently they need to talk to these people, because they witnessed this shooting.
At some point some of these people started fighting back apparently when the shooter walked in. This 19-year-old white male with an AR assault rifle who opened fired. From what we're told there were several people who were hit inside. Of course, one person's dead, that's a woman, two men were shot and then was juvenile hit.
Our hearts go out, of course, to the victims involved in this case. But listen to the sheriff talk about how this incident started to play out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF WILLIAM GORE, SAN DIEGO COUNTY: I want to start off our little brief press conference here by expressing our condolences to all the people that are injured in this senseless act of tragedy that visited Poway this afternoon.
At about 11:23 this morning, a white male adult entered the Chabad temple at 16934 Chabad Way, in Poway, California. This individual was with an AR type assault weapon and opened fired on the people inside the synagogue.
During this shooting four individuals were wounded and transported to Palomar Hospital. Sadly one of the individuals succumbed to their wounds. The other three are in stable condition at Palomar.
As the suspect was fleeing the temple, an off duty Border Patrol agent opened fire on the suspect, but apparently did not hit him, but struck the cars that departed the area. The people at Palomar, one is the - a female juvenile in stable condition and two adult males are in stable condition.
Sadly, an older female died from - and succumbed to her wounds she obtained in the shooting. The suspect was shortly taken into custody and I'll turn it over to David Nisleit of San Diego Police Department to give you the details of that arrest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: There are definitely some heroes involved in this case. In fact, we heard from one reporter at the scene that apparently somebody inside that synagogue had their fingers blown off during the shooting.
When you think about the details of that and the victims who were hit, you understand the pain they are going through right now, once again, 100 people still behind needing to be talked to in this investigation.
We also know this is a town about 50,000 people and the Mayor was going into great detail about just having a service where everyone in the community had come together to kind of put their arms around each other and he wanted to stand against hate, because he said it didn't have a place in this community, it has a very low crime rate.
But right now they are looking at this as a hate crime investigation that 19-year-old white male walking in with that assault rifle and opening fire during the last day of Passover, striking so many people in there. Of course, police are still in the investigation phase at this point, Don.
LEMON: Ryan, Alisyn and I have a couple of questions for you.
YOUNG: Yes.
LEMON: #1, watching earlier - I know this is still unfolding. The Mayor said that that they had deemed it a hate crime, because of what the suspect said or was yelling when he started shooting when that went when this happened. Do we know what the suspect said?
YOUNG: So that has not been made clear to us just yet, but we have been doing some digging. In fact, we may have some pictures of the suspect. But at this point we know he might have also had some manifestos out there Don.
And as you know we have to clear all that first, before we can put some of this stuff out there. So we're kind of reading through this right now to sort of figure this out. One thing that he points out apparently is that he had to learn on his own. That his parents did not teach him this. He had to learn some of these beliefs of his apparently on his own before doing this.
[19:05:00] It would be interesting to figure out whether or not he targeted this place, because online, I guess, they were kind of promoting their service today. I'm wondering whether or not this is a target because he apparently lived in San Diego. We know this is about 22 miles away.
CAMEROTA: So Ryan, it is six months to the day from the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh I went there in the days following it. I talked many times to Rabbi Jeffrey Myers there. He felt, at that time, that it was connected to all of the kind of heated rhetoric in this country.
We have no idea, though, of course, if this shooter has - was inspired or had any connection to what happened there in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh.
LEMON: Yes, I mean, just to think, though. I mean, you said it's one year--
CAMEROTA: Six months.
LEMON: Six months to the day.
CAMEROTA: Right, who knows if that's coincidental or not...
LEMON: Who knows if that's coincidental or not, yes.
YOUNG: So I remember that day because I was at the Trump rally in Illinois when that day happened. I remember his words very clearly that day after that - at that incident. But I'll also tell you this.
I was talking to a law enforcement source this afternoon on another story, and he was warning me actually about the idea of all this extra chatter that has been going on for the last few days, especially around religious events.
And so we were just sort of talking about this in a - and this is sort of bubbled up and you have the idea of all this chatter on the internet, and we know that's where his manifesto is, it would be interesting to see how police break this down bit by bit. But six months to the day, it's a very scary situation.
LEMON: Ryan, I want you to stand by, because we're going to bring you back into the conversation we want to more about the suspect and I would imagine they have not released his name, otherwise you would have given it to us.
But I just want - I want to bring in Josh Campbell. Josh is a Former FBI Supervisory Special Agent and a CNN Law Enforcement Analyst and joins us now. Josh, thank you. Can you react to what Ryan was just saying - the information he was conveying about the community and so forth?
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST, FORMER FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Yes, and this is obviously a trying time for this community. But the Jewish community across the country right now, we've heard from law enforcement officers from New York all the way to the West Coast, that they're now looking at possibly increasing their patrol posture at houses of worship.
Again, this is something that's always been front of mind for this community, especially as of late, especially since the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. And this just shows that the threat continues. What we don't yet know and what we're waiting to hear from law enforcement officers is, what is it that - specifically that they know that allowed them to come out and say - according to the mayor that this was a hate crime.
Obviously, we know this was a house of worship. We know this was a synagogue. We - I specifically want to know, as a former investigator, what did he say, both during the shooting and then also what did he say to law enforcement officers afterwards, that we'll have to wait to find out.
But, again, this is just one of so many of these that we've sadly been covering, but they continue to happen again and again.
CAMEROTA: Josh, when you hear Ryan say there was extra chatter. The police - the law enforcement sources were aware of extra chatter around this week. What does that look like? What does that mean?
CAMPBELL: So it's hard to say specifically, because the law enforcement officers have a number of different sources and methods. This could be human informants that are reporting in that look there are groups out - hate groups that are talking about action, maybe they're responding to other incidents that we've seen, going back just recently, obviously the New Zealand attack.
So there are - these are - a lot of groups will go online, they'll discuss in some of these forums where you have this deprave language and dialogue that goes on what. We don't yet know is, was that referring to these types of groups trying to ratchet up this type of hate and inspiring people to go out and actually do something?
Again, we can't lose sight of the fact, as you mentioned, six months to the day from that Tree of Life synagogue shooting, that's obviously of key interest to law enforcement. And then there works not done, that's what we have to obviously know - focus on now.
They have the one person, but we don't know did he have associates, were there people with whom he was in contact with, that is all now the focus of law enforcement. And so, that's the investigative side.
Obviously, as a country, we need to now have that conversation, which we're not having, which is, why does a hatred continuum, what do we do about it?
LEMON: Josh, standby by. Is Ryan still there? I want to ask Ryan a question if he's still there. Ryan, you listening?
YOUNG: I'm there.
LEMON: Ryan, so listen, as I understand when - when they came in contact with the suspect, apparently he - there was a gun. They found a gun - an AR type weapon. And he - did he did he identify himself? Tell us about that process. What happened?
YOUNG: Well, there's an interesting part to this, and of course it was after - apparently there may have been some struggle at that door of that synagogue and then someone who was inside that Border Patrol agent was able to get off a shot at the suspect.
And during that time, he was still able to flee. And he called - apparently might have even called 911 himself to say that he was the shooter. Then that was overheard on the radio and he was pulled over and gave himself up.
So, one, we don't have the type of weapon that he used...
LEMON: They said it was an AR - they believed it was an AR type weapon.
YOUNG: Right. We don't know if it's an AR-15 or what caliber or go into all that stuff. But we do know it's probably a semi-automatic. We also know that witnesses say, they heard several shots - maybe six to eight shots at some point.
But then you have that strange phone call and then giving himself up, turning himself in. It's sort of interesting how it played out. But you had that Border Patrol agent who was there, who was able to at least take a shot at him as he was trying to flee the synagogue.
[19:10:00] LEMON: Do we do we know anything about him? Was he familiar to congregation, was he familiar with police, familiar in the community? And on top of that, had they identified him? YOUNG: Well here's the thing. We have gotten to a point where we do believe we have a name. We're not at a point - and you know how this works, Don. We haven't cleared it enough, so we can say it out loud.
But we, of course, are going through a background. We believe, not only the manifesto that we have found is connected to people that we see all over social media, but we see his connection to the community and kind of like he stayed in the San Diego area, which the sheriff and the police department have already confirmed to us.
But I believe at this point, just because of being very cautious, we want to nail down that it's him. But we've, obviously, seen some pictures and his family and some of the other connections. And again those words that I use earlier, that he said he had to learn for himself. That his parents did not teach them this - that he had to learn online about the world through his own eyes.
CAMEROTA: Stand by if you would for us Ryan and Josh. I mean, I thank God for that Border Patrol agent who was able to take him down.
But I mean the idea that congregants have to fight people off on one of their holy days of worship, it is incredible.
LEMON: We were listening to what the witnesses said that some people may have lost their fingers or whatever trying to defend themselves against the shooter and it is just unbelievable, especially, consider the - six months, right?
CAMEROTA: Yes.
LEMON: And we're here to - I mean, full transparency, we're here in Washington talking about the freedom of the press, celebrating the freedom of the press. And you know, on a day that was supposed to be at least celebratory in some way, we have this terrible incident happening with all of these people who are affected by it.
CAMEROTA: And there's more hate crimes happening. There's been a spike in hate crimes, and a spike in crimes at houses of worship.
LEMON: Where they 16 percent?
CAMEROTA: 17 percent up this year from last year or I should say 2017 from 2016, so we're going to talk about that - about why this is happening, and what we're seeing around the world really.
So we're also awaiting this news conference on the shooting, including what investigators have learned about the suspect. There was this open letter that he wrote that was found. So we're going to get into that. Standby this is CNN Special Live Coverage.
[19:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MINOO ANVARI, MEMBER OF CHABAD SYNAGOGUE: My husband called and he said that it has a shooting and in synagogue and unfortunately one of my friend is down and my rabbi has been injured, two other people are injured. And one guy came with - shoot everybody and cursing.
And they - of course, they took them to hospital and we are praying for them. But just one message from all of us from our congregation, that we are standing together, we are getting stronger. Never again you - can't break us. We are strong. You can't break us. We all are together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Wow.
CAMEROTA: All right. If you're just joining us, we do have breaking news at this hour. Police in Poway California say a gunman went into a synagogue and opened fire with an assault type weapon. Four people were shot, including an adult woman who died of her injuries. A young female and two adult males were also injured. They are said to be in stable condition at the Palomar Medical Center.
The mayor of Poway, Steve Vaus says that the rabbi is one of the wounded. The suspect was not caught at the scene but apparently called police after the shooting - after he had fled and he turned himself in. The suspect is a 19 year old white man - we are told.
So just a short time ago, President Trump reacted to the shooting, as he was preparing to make his way to his campaign rally in Wisconsin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My deepest sympathies go to the people that were affected - the families, their loved ones by the - obviously, looks right now - based on my last conversations - looks like a hate crime.
Hard to believe, hard to believe - with respect to the synagogue in California, near San Diego. And we're doing some very heavy research. We'll see what happens, what comes up. At this moment it looks like a hate crime.
But my deepest sympathies to all of those affected and we'll get to the bottom of it. It looks like the person was that apprehended, no more danger, and law enforcement has done a fantastic job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, obviously, all of this is still unfolding. I want to bring in now CNN's White House Correspondent, Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, hello to you. What do you expect to hear from the President tonight at this rally that he is giving this counter really to the White House Correspondents Dinner?
KAITLAN COLLINS CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, certainly what the President had planned has been changed by this shooting, and we'll likely hear him address it during that rally, based on what White House officials are saying and their tentative planning going around this shooting right now. Because, of course, tonight is the White House Correspondents Dinner, the President has his rally in Wisconsin. But this shooting at this synagogue in San Diego is something that is certainly looming large over Washington.
Now you heard the President address and he said that based on his last conversations, he believes this is a hate crime. Though, Don and Alisyn, he did exactly detail who those conversations were with, whether it was local law enforcement or the FBI.
But the President did say that essentially they are looking into this, who this shooter is, what is going on, as well as to offering his sympathies for the family and praising law enforcement. Because you both know that it wasn't that long ago that the White House had to deal with another shooting like this at a synagogue.
That was in Pennsylvania where the President had to go and he was there and he - it was a Tree of Life synagogue. And not only was the President there, but he also took his son-in-law and Senior Advisor, Jared Kushner and I was there covering the President that day.
It was a very emotional day for this administration and several officials who were there. And now here we are, just a short while later, and they are combating this issue once again and having to react to something like this, something so horrific.
CAMEROTA: Six months to the day, Kaitlan from the Tree of Life synagogue massacre. Thank you very much. We'll check back with you. We want to bring in now Rabbi Joshua Stanton. He is here with us. We're happy to have your counsel here in studio with us.
Rabbi, just really sorry that this is happening to your community - to all of us here in this country, what do you think is happening when you see yet another synagogue under attack like this?
[19:20:00] RABBI JOSHUA STANTON: I fear that this was another incident of domestic terrorism. And we very quickly jumped to the word terrorism when it comes to people who are radicalized based on religion, but these are people, who I fear, are radicalized based on white supremacist ideology.
And so I fear that there is a rise in hate, there is a rise in anti- Semitism and that there has been a rise in domestic terrorism. My heart goes out to all who have been impacted. They were attending a Yizkor service, which is designed to memorialize those who have been lost, and instead their service became a living memorial to the person whose life was lost.
In addition, this was not just the end of Passover, the holiday that is supposed to celebrate freedom. This is the same week that we observe Yom HaShoah, a commemoration for the Holocaust itself.
So this was very carefully timed to inflict the most pain, to invoke the most fear, and to really cause suffering within the Jewish community and within all communities that unfortunately now do live in fear of domestic terrorism and white supremacist hate. LEMON: Rabbi, let's have the conversation that many people fear, right. And you went there. We talk about terrorism and domestic terrorism, white terrorism in this country. People are people are afraid to talk about it, and if you talk about it you're deemed racist or you're un-American.
But as you said, when it is Muslim, when they believe it's Muslim terrorism, quick to respond, quick to profile a Muslim. I was having this conversation as I was coming to the studio, how do you profile the average person who may not look like their Muslim?
They may not be dark-skinned. They may just you know be a brown haired guy that you may just see at the supermarket. Why is it - how do you do that and why is it so difficult for us to have that conversation which is desperately needed.
STANTON: There's clearly a double standard going on. The Anti- Defamation League collected statistics on domestic terrorist incidents over the last year and it was an overwhelming majority in the United States this past year that were committed by people inspired by white supremacist hate.
And what that means is, we need to stop profiling, because the people that somehow we conjure in our minds, as those who look or seem like terrorists. are in fact, not the most likely to engage in terrorism at all. It is people we don't profile, people who are "normal, mainstream" who statistically engage in most active violence.
LEMON: Let me just give you some stats and then Alisyn can jump in here. We talked about the bias crime - 1,679 religious bias crimes reported that was in 2017. Alisyn and I already mentioned that it was up 17% from 2016 to 2017. 58.1 were against Jewish people, 18.6 were against Muslim people and it is going up.
STANTON: So I just received a text message from my dear friend Imam Tahir Kukaj from Staten Island. What he said is, we stand with you, and it's because we stood with the Muslim community after New Zealand. We stood with the Muslim community after act of vandalism. And so there is - in the midst of a truly horrific moment, the opportunity to build solidarity as never before between the American Jewish and the American Muslim community.
CAMEROTA: Why is - why are we in the middle of this horrific moment? Why are more houses of worship under threat and all of this, as we've talked about, hideous chatter where people - white supremacists have found each other and feel licensed to be able to talk about--
LEMON: Emboldened.
CAMEROTA: --yes, can you talk about those?
STANTON: I fear that politicians have brought hate mainstream in normalizing the rhetoric and normalizing the language and saying that there are good people on both after Charlottesville, and in failing to stop everything when a house of worship is under attack, to stop everything and just be present with those in mourning. Instead my fear is that Jews have become like a political Ping-Pong ball, who just bounce back and forth. We're being used. And instead of being comforted, politicians are enabling us to somehow become targeted much more easily.
LEMON: We don't know - again Alisyn mentioned this earlier, we don't know what the motivation was, besides that the police are saying that it was a hate crime. We don't know what--
CAMEROTA: Because he was shouting and cursing, we don't know what.
LEMON: And we don't know if it has any connection to the politics that's going on. But I mean it would be a stretch to say that it doesn't.
But as a Jewish person, when you hear the excuses coming from this administration, and you hear people walking down the streets marching, openly saying Jews will not replace us. And having the administration make excuses for that, how does that make you feel as a Jewish person?
STANTON: It makes me feel otherwise. It makes me feel like I am not totally free. It makes me feel, as though, somehow I could be targeted or our community could be targeted.
[19:25:00] And our country, the United States, has been so good to the Jewish community - this has been a land of opportunity, a land of freedom. And to see that turn on its head by political opportunists, just fills me with profound sadness and, frankly, outrage.
CAMEROTA: Have you been feeling more tension at your synagogue?
STANTON: So I've been feeling tension a great deal, and my colleagues have been feeling tension. All of a sudden we've had to become experts, not just in Torah, not just in teaching, not just in counseling, not just in being with people, and now we have to become experts in security.
And as much as I respect security professionals, I did not become a rabbi in order to be an expert in security. And so there is a tension not just within our communities, but within our very vocations.
My calling now includes an additional point of expertise. I mean the reporting from our - so thus far from our reporters is that some of the congregation to fight off this person.
LEMON: Maybe in losing you know fingers and so forth - I mean it's just awful rabbi.
STANTON: It is a source of ongoing and profound pain. And I think especially leading up to Yom HaShoah, the day when we commemorate the Holocaust. We have to make clear that hate cannot become normalized, hate cannot become mainstream, hateful terror among white supremacists cannot win this day.
LEMON: You think it's become normalized? STANTON: Increasingly normalized. But at the same time, there are text messages from dear Imams and priests and pastors and humanist chaplains. There are people coming out in solidarity with us.
The black community which has also faced white supremacist terror in such extreme ways this year, has reached out personally to me - a number of black preachers have reached out and they give me solace, they give me comfort, and they give me love when I feel empty. So the hope is that we can come together as a diverse polity and stand against hate as one.
CAMEROTA: Rabbi Stanton, thank you very much for being here during this tough time.
LEMON: Absolutely. And I do have to say this, I believe as an African- American, that the Jewish community and the black community in this country have very similar paths, are the most relatable to each other out of it. And we're all Americans, we can all relate to each other.
But the struggle from the Holocaust and from slavery, it's very similar pain and it is visceral and you can feel it. That's why I asked you about, Jews will not replace us.
You as an American, hearing someone say that on the streets of a country that you live in, that you pay taxes in. That you have every right to live in and be whoever you are, to hear that is just - it's just infuriating and sad at the same time.
STANTON: My grandfather did not flee Nazi Germany for me, his grandson, to hear Nazis - literal Nazis chanting in American streets.
LEMON: Yes, will you stick with us please, because we're going to need you through this.
CAMEROTA: Thank you.
LEMON: Thank You, rabbi.
STANTON: Thank you.
LEMON: We're waiting in news conferences, as we've been saying here. Alisyn told you earlier. We're waiting a news conference as soon as that happened we're - it happens we'll take you to it.
It should happen - it's supposed to happen at the bottom of the hour, around 7:30 Eastern Time. They aren't always on time, but as soon as that happens we'll bring it to you. This is CNN's Live Special Coverage.
[19:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: All right. It is the bottom of the hour, and moments from now we expect officials near San Diego will hold a news conference on the suspect in this deadly shooting at a synagogue.
One woman has been killed, several more are hurt. A witness who lives down the street from this synagogue says that he heard multiple gunshots and a loud emotional male voice yelling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER FOLTS, WITNESS: Yes. I was out front of the house, getting ready to do some yard work. And set out in front of the house and I hear about six or seven gunshots and I heard - there was a pause and I heard some male voice yelling, and then I heard about another six or seven shots and then I went quiet. I ran inside the house, grabbed a house phone and called 911.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you hear the male voice yelling what?
FOLTS: I couldn't hear what they were yelling. But it was loud and yes, it was emotional male voice and that I - and that's all I heard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you said you heard like six shots. I mean, was it really fast?
FOLTS: Yes, it was like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang and then yelling and then another bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. So yes, it was about, I'd say at least a dozen shots overall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And after he called 911, what did you do? Did you come out here and in see what was going on?
FOLTS: Yes, I kind of waited to see what was happening and it took probably a good - well, I'd say about four or five minutes and then the police came in mass and then a helicopter was circling shortly thereafter. Strange, it almost touched down here right on Sommerfeld line which was - I've never seen that before. So--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see people running out or anyone injured or anything like that?
FOLTS: No, I didn't see any movement at all. No cars, no people running, nothing like that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How you're feeling like this? I'm sure you're not used to seeing this?
FOLTS: This is crazy, because, yes, it's a really close-knit, quite neighborhood community and you never expect any like this to happen here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know any members of the church there?
FOLTS: My daughter went to preschool there, so we do were familiar with the rabbi and who was right down the street, but I don't know any active members there right now, no.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you heard of anything about what's happened?
FOLTS: The only thing I heard was that the rabbi was shot and then a female was taken to the hospital. And there were other people with various injuries, but that's all I heard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And as you know, the President reacted earlier. We have been hearing from politicians and one of them now just - you know from the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reacting to the synagogue shooting in Poway and here's what he is tweeting.
He said, "While we're still looking at the information, the numbers of hate crimes and anti-Semitic acts in America is increasing at an alarming rate.
The shooting at Chabad of Poway is devastating, and such anti-Semitism at the end of Passover is sickening. We must end gun violence in America".
Let's bring it now CNN's Juliette Kayyem. She is our National Security Analyst and a Former Homeland Security Official under President Barack Obama.
[19:35:00] Juliette, we appreciate you joining us. We've been watching your coverage as this has been unfolding. And you have been giving us some really good information, some really good insight here.
It's another shooting at a place of worship. This - the Homeland Security Department need to consider that they might need to establish new protocol for keeping worshippers safe now.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Absolutely it's a challenge. Obviously, these are private or nonprofit institutions. But the challenge is, with any security issue is balancing, what the meaning of that place is. So a temple or a mosque or a church, thing they want to be welcoming, they want to be opening.
And then, of course now, in this day and age of heightened violence in places of worship, and in particular synagogues and mosques in the United States at least and, of course, we saw churches in Sri Lanka, is to protect the people in there. And that's a balance that is really, really difficult.
We don't know the details right now what happened in the synagogue, who was able to stop her whom. But as I was discussing earlier as well, people who are radicalized online, this kind of ideology that we're seeing online of white supremacy - give it whatever title you want. That goes after religions in particular.
Coupled with, the kind of weaponry that's available to these men, in particular very fast weaponry, I think means that our protocols for places of worship really do have to change. Because once someone's in the room, it's really hard to stop them, because of the sort of nature of the weaponry they're bringing in.
CAMEROTA: I'm in - between obviously today Juliette and six months ago at the Tree of Life, and then of course in between their Christchurch in New Zealand, Sri Lanka as we just saw last week. It feels like it is happening routinely. And it's not just the feeling, it's - the statistics show that these hate crimes at places of worship have gone up. And so historically speaking, what is a spike like that about? What does that mean from a law enforcement and an analyst perspective when you see a spike like that, what do you think?
KAYYEM: So the spike that we've been looking at over the last 18 to 24 months is a combination of three different factors. Of course, it's the ideology of extremism that really views the - it's - we call it displacement extremism.
In other words, the idea that I cannot exist if you the other - the Muslim, the Jew exists. You then couple that with the social media platforms that I'm just going to say out loud here have been abysmal of getting this stuff off of their platforms, whether it's Facebook or Twitter. It is it is absolutely ridiculous, the extent to which they let this hate flow.
And I think what you're going to see with this is assailant is the extent to which he probably became radicalized with these online chatter groups that are just like the cesspool of humanity, but are being supported by these multi-billion dollar companies.
And then the third is, of course, what Don and I often talk on his show about stochastic terrorism. There's a narrative in the public space, whether it's a President unwilling to condemn neo-Nazis or a or right-wing groups in Europe or just a sort of complacency about this. Right?
This idea that it's OK to speak in that language, that it's not shuns, that it's no longer embarrassing to walk around and scream anti-racist things. You know in other words, that there's no shame for these people to have these hatred attitudes.
Those three things combined has led to the world we exist in now. It's not just a feeling. The numbers worldwide, let alone in the United States, confirm it. The most dangerous form of terrorism in the United States now is white supremacy, it's not Islamic terrorism.
They are all bad. But nonetheless, if we are going to focus our resources, it is this kind of hatred that is given a permissiveness, that has access to weaponry, that is given online platforms, give them the space to grow and then they walk into a synagogue on yet another Saturday and that is the tragedy and the horror of what's going on in the United States right now.
LEMON: Every word you said is true.
CAMEROTA: I appreciate you calling out the social media.
LEMON: Yes.
CAMEROTA: And I think that's really important, because they claim that they're trying to do things to shut down this toxicity, but--
KAYYEM: I mean, Alisyn, let me tell you. Alisyn, how a man is able to kill dozens of people in a - in New Zealand - in a mosque in New Zeeland and Facebook Live-- CAMEROTA: Right, live stream it.
KAYYEM: Right - for 19 minutes, it's ridiculous. They're either not trying or the algorithm is so screwed up, it should be brought down. But to me it is they - in the mask of First Amendment, they have failed to protect us from --
[19:40:00] LEMON: You're reading my mind. That was my next question to you. We're here celebrating the Constitution, the First Amendment in Washington, where it's supposed to be. And I think - but I think it's appropriate that we do so, considering what is happening in the country right now.
And Juliette it's a very important point that that these folks often use - and you look at it online, and if you look at some of the folks in the political class, they will use the First Amendment to spread hate, to spread bigotry, to spread racism, to spread anti-Semitism, to spread all kinds of horrible things. And so - but that is the crux that we're in right now.
KAYYEM: Exactly. It is - we have been sold something by the big platforms that in some ways they have no agency to deal with this issue. Fortunately, the dialogue about them has changed.
They absolutely do have agency to be able to bring down these sites that - all these sites exist for is to breed hate. They are - Facebook and Twitter are not government entities. They - I mean, they are not sort of confined by the First Amendment. They can make these decisions.
They've convinced us somehow that they can't, right? That somehow either the algorithm doesn't allow it or that First Amendment doesn't allow it. The truth is they've made a decision to allow their platforms to be governed by this.
And until we start talking about they're contributing aspects to their growth of hate, let alone anti-democracy, coupled with extremism and then the stochastic terrorism where this - this racism and this anti- Semitism is allowed to bread in the public space.
All three of those combined have brought us to what is not just a feeling, was not just a sense of unease about what how we live right now, it's proven in the data. And until we start condemning everyone who contributes, we're not going to stop this, because they are feeding off each other.
I will say one other thing. In this case today, at least what we're seeing on counterterrorism information that's coming out from public sources as well as a couple calls I've been on. You know the extent to which these guys are linked to each other through the internet.
So we will find someone is triggered by New Zealand, another is triggered by whatever happened in - whatever attacks happened in Pittsburgh. They find unity in their hatred through both online resources. And then that the public sphere here in the United States is not sufficiently condemning from the White House down this racism, period.
CAMEROTA: Juliette, thank you very much for all of your important points for starting this national conversation that obviously we are having and need to be having today. Thank you very much.
Our Sara Sidner has just arrived on the scene. So we will go live to her with all the developments as we await this news conference.
[19:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: All right. We're going to go back to the breaking news that we're following out of California. Police say one person has been killed, three others are injured after this gunman went into a synagogue in Poway, California, opened fire with an AR style type rifle of some kind.
We are expecting a news conference from officials there at any moment to get updates on the suspect, on the victims, on the investigation into what happened. But our Sara Sidner has just arrived on the scene. Sara tell us what you've learned.
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I can't tell you having to show up at another synagogue just six months to the day that the worst - the deadliest anti-Semitic act happened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Tree of Life synagogue.
People here are shaken, the neighbors said that they heard something around a dozen gunshots. Right over here behind me you see the Chabad Community Center, the synagogue there was filled with people, because this was the eighth day - the last day of Passover. And on this day - this is the day when the Jewish faithful honor those who have passed away, those who have died, relatives who have died.
And now one woman is dead, as she was honoring someone else who had passed away, and three others are injured, including a girl, and two adult men, all rushed to the hospital.
How this all went down is - that the Sheriff's Department - sheriff says that basically a 19-year-old came into this synagogue and started firing an assault-style weapon at those who were here praying.
LEMON: Sara --
SIDNER: And it's so hard to keep saying the same thing over and over again. They were praying, they were trying to honor those who had died before them - their relatives. And here they are victims of yet another shooting at yet another place of worship.
I should also mention that the police ended up finding this suspect. And when they did, he did surrender peacefully, but they noticed that he had this weapon on front seat and he ended up fleeing partly, because there was an off-duty Border Patrol agent, who was at the synagogue who fired upon him. He missed him, but hit his car.
You can tell, without that off-duty officer here - off duty patrol officer here, there could have been a far greater number of people injured and potentially dead at this time. A lot of people feeling very thankful that there was at least someone here that could have engaged this shooter. But at this point in time, there is just sorrow in this community.
I should also mention that where this is located - where the synagogue is located, all you have to do is look up the street, and just next door there is a church and next to that there is another church.
And as you know, one of them is a Orthodox Church and they will be celebrating Easter - the Eastern Easter as many call it this Sunday. This is a community that says, they are not in any way filled with hate. They just cannot believe this has happened here.
[19:50:00] LEMON: Sara, as you were speaking there, I'm sure the viewers at home and I am interested. You talked about what the area is like, and I know that you just arrived in the scene. I'm sure that you're book ended by media on both sides of you.
But can you take us there and show us - is that the synagogue across the street, what it looks like there? What they're up against, what the community looks like, if you will?
SIDNER: Yes. Neighbors are coming. I'll give you - I'll have - Tom Larsen (ph) is going to just kind of push in there to show you. That is the Chabad Community Center there and people would have been coming in. But if you look just past it - and Tom, I don't know if you can pan over just a bit, you will see the spires and the crosses from two churches that exist right there.
That is how close this community is. It's an interfaith community. They have interfaith services. There are people from the entire neighborhood who have come out. There are flowers that are being brought. People are, obviously, shaken by this.
Neighbors have told us that they have indeed listened to the awful sounds of gunshots going off again and again and again - at least a dozen according to one neighbor. We talked to another gentleman who said that, one of the people inside of the synagogue who was praying, is from Iran - an Iranian Jew.
And that his wife had said, look, we moved here to get away from being persecuted, and here we are in what we thought was a calm, quiet, loving wonderful community that accepted us and anyone else from any other religion. And here we are suffering, because someone decided that they were going to take aim at those people who are doing nothing more than being peaceful and praying. Don?
LEMON: Sara, we'll get back to you. Thank you so much for that.
CAMEROTA: Sara, stand by. I mean you can hear how hard it is for Sara to have to keep covering all this, as it is for us to have to keep reporting on all of this. It's happening too often as with our next guest.
We want to bring in Rabbi Chuck Diamond. He was the rabbi of the Tree of Life synagogue from 2010 to 2017, and it has been six months to the day, since the mass shooting there. Rabbi, thank you very much for being available to us. What did you think when you heard what happened in California?
RABBI CHUCK DIAMOND, TREE OF LIFE RABBI FROM 2010 TO 2017: It's like living a nightmare all over again. And I'm listening to your broadcast and thank both of you for a great job you're doing. And it's just like again hearing the same thing over again.
Six months to the day I cry and grieve every single day, and with the other things around the world that are happening in Christchurch and Sri Lanka, it's tough. It's just tough.
LEMON: Yes. We had the opportunity to talk many times to your successor to Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, and he was very clear. I mean, he, from the very beginning, even while he was grieving and while all the congregants there at the Tree of Life were still grieving, he was saying it is the heated rhetoric.
I mean, he drew a direct line between the heated rhetoric, the toxicity that is in all of our sort of national conversation right now from social media, on up to some of our leaders. And he thinks that that does engender violence. What do you think is going on with all of this violence?
DIAMOND: Yes, I agree with Rabbi Myers. And it was a very difficult service for them this morning on the six-month anniversary - everybody was crying and this just adds to the grief that we feel. I agree.
What the President said in one of your clips, he said, we're going to get to the bottom of this. Now, to me, that's empty rhetoric, unless we really mean we're going to get to the bottom of this problem - the problem of domestic violence, terrorism, the problem of hate violence, the problem of the increase of anti-Semitism, gun violence. And if we really want to get to the bottom of this, there's a lot of work we have to do. Talk is cheap.
LEMON: Yes. Listen, the President also said - and sadly, not what the President said, but the President also said that he was surprised or shocked by it. And - or surprised that it was a hate crime.
In this day and age, it's awful that it happened, rabbi. But I have to say, it's not surprised, because - I wasn't surprised, because in many ways hate is being mainstreamed.
I spoke with the rabbi, he was here before, we had white nationalists who are openly walking down the street and who do it all the time, saying Jews will not replace us in blood and soil. It's awful, but it's becoming not surprising.
[19:55:00] DIAMOND: Well, it's certainly not surprising. And even this it past week the President refused to pull back on his rhetoric about the white supremacists. So it shouldn't be surprising to anybody, and certainly the head of our country.
And I think we have to be diligent in terms of - as the rabbi said who you had on, he has to become an expert in security. I feel like I've become an expert in mass shootings, because I always get called to appear on programs like yours, which I'm happy to do, but after a shooting.
It's just a horrific thing to experience up close, and it's a horrific thing to experience on an on-going basis, no matter if it's here or around the world. So - and we're united in some ways, as some people have said. People who have been victims of this violence are united and that we have to do everything we can to stand up against hate.
LEMON: Rabbi, thank you so much, we really appreciate it.
CAMEROTA: We're thinking of all of you in Squirrel Hill today. Thank you very much for being with us.
DIAMOND: Well, I appreciate both of you. And thank you. And you know what, I do happy occasions too, so you can call me any time.
CAMEROTA: OK. We'll remember that, we'll keep your number close by. Thank you for being on standby for us today.
DIAMOND: OK. Take care.
CAMEROTA: You too. We are moments away from officials say that they're going to be holding his press conference. We can only imagine that that they are delayed because they have their hands full out there with this investigation.
Also the President is about to speak in Wisconsin. And here in Washington the White House Correspondents Dinner is happening, celebrating the First Amendment, so all of that ahead for you.
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