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One Dead, Three Wounded in San Diego Synagogue Shooting; Rabbi Goldstein Speaks After Terror Attack; Democratic Voters Have no Idea Who to Vote; Six Men Trapped Inside a Cave in Virginia. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 28, 2019 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[17:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: You're live in the "CNN Newsroom." Thank you for being here. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York and in just moments, the rabbi who survived the shooting at his synagogue about 24 hours ago will speak. He lost a finger on his right hand. He may lose one on his left as well, but his resolve to not let a terrorist "win" could not be stronger.

Now, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein is calling for all worshippers to keep attending services and not be deterred by the act allegedly carried out by a white supremacist. The gunman is now in custody of San Diego County after opening fire at the Congregation Chabad in Poway California.

Rabbi Goldstein and two others, including a little girl were hurt. They're all out of the hospital thankfully. But one woman did not survive, 60-yearold Lori Gilbert Kaye who the rabbi says was a pioneering member of this congregation he founded 33 years ago. A witness says Kaye jumped between the shooter and the rabbi when she was gunned down.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

YISROEL GOLDSTEIN, RABBI, CONGREGATION CHABAD (via telephone): She was the ultimate woman of kindness. And it's unfathomable why this beautiful, beautiful wonderful human being would be shot down. I mean, I met the terrorist face to face, eye to eye. Our eyes locked, and he aimed at me and miraculously I was able to just survive losing my fingers.

It was just unfathomable, indescribable terror, horrific the (inaudible) on (inaudible) measures. And this has to stop. This has to stop. You know, the constitution of the United States guarantees freedom of religion for all. You know, we are so lucky and fortunate to live here in a country that protects our rights to live as proud Jews.

You know, we're still recovering from the holocaust and we found a haven to live as free people. And yet we're being mowed down like animals just like war Nazi Germany. And this has to stop. A little bit of light pushes away a lot of darkness. We need a lot of light now.

(END AUDIO CLIP) CABRERA: As we wait for the rabbi to speak, let me bring in CNN

national correspondent Sara Sidner who is in Poway. And Sara, you just spoke to the little girl who survived this shooting. She's just 8 years old, what did she say?

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we talked to her father, Israel Dahan, and we talked the 8-year-old, Noya Dahan, today were both inside along with their other family members. They were there for the last day of Passover. This was supposed to be a day that they honored relatives who had passed away, and then they found themselves victim of this deadly shooting.

We talked to Noya, who was bright and sweet and kind and scared. She talked about what happened to her inside this synagogue when this 19- year-old suspect came in and started firing over and over and over again, the sounds she said were really, really loud. They were terrifying. She says now she is extremely scared and she is constantly saying that she has to look over her shoulder, she has to know who is behind her. But she talks about the moment in which she is hit with shrapnel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOYA DAHAN, SHOOTING SURVIVOR: My uncle, he was holding my hand and he was like grabbing me and stuff. And the person who was shooting, he was aiming at him. So -- it hit him and, well, like -- were like that. It hit me too.

SIDNER: So you got hit with shrapnel?

DAHAN: Yes.

SIDNER: Little pieces?

DAHAN: No, like the knee one is pretty big, but these were the little pieces. So, this was like a pretty big piece, and then it went back here.

SIDNER: So the piece of shrapnel went in your leg and then came out the other side?

DAHAN: Yes.

SIDNER: What were you thinking then? Did it hurt?

DAHAN: In the first place when it was like gushing blood, I didn't even feel it. And then after like they wiped it and then like the blood was off and it was like -- it felt like I had the largest bruise ever. It was just hurting bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So you heard there from an 8-year-old girl who survived this. Her sisters were there as well. Her uncle helped save the children's lives. He picked them up, he began running, and this has been a time for this family that is particularly painful because they came here to Poway from another part of California where they fled because their home and their area where they were living had been covered in swastikas.

[17:05:00] And they felt that they were unsafe there. They came here at the behest of the rabbi here who was injured in this shooting. And now they're again thinking about what to do. Will they have to run again? It is just a heart wrenching story for a family that has been through quite a lot.

CABRERA: What a strong little girl. I can only imagine how traumatic that whole experience must have been. Bring us the latest on the investigation for us, Sara.

SIDNER: So, a 19-year-old is in custody. He was picked up and when he was picked up the San Diego police officer who arrested him said that he saw there was a semiautomatic style or an assault style rifle that was sitting on the front seat in the car, that there was a bullet hole in the car.

We know that he was -- partially ended up running out of the synagogue because there was an off-duty border patrol agent who was armed, who was able to engage the shooter. He missed the shooter but hit his car instead. We are expecting at some point there will be an arraignment. We will hear whether or not he pleads guilty or not guilty to this crime.

We know that the shooter himself according to police called authorities to say that there had been a shooting at the synagogue. This is a 19-year-old according to police. They are trying to see if he has any connections to other groups. I will say this, they are looking through an open letter as they have called it that has a lot of details in it, that they believe that the suspect wrote.

It refers to things that happened previously like what happened at the Tree of Life synagogue, the worst killing -- anti-Semitic killing in American history in recent years. Also mentioning Christchurch and what happened there, the 50 people killed in a mosque there as well.

We have been combing through that as well ourselves. It is very chilling, very disturbing, and especially so because this is someone who is still a teenager, Ana?

CABRERA: We all want answers and especially those who are most directly impacted, trying to make sense of why, why this synagogue? Why would this person do this? I know you spoke to the father of that 8-year-old girl who we just heard from, from Noya. What is he saying?

SIDNER: He described what he saw. He was sitting very, very close to where all this happened and when the -- he said the gunman never actually walked into the shul, the area where everybody was praying. But actually had come in the front door and started shooting from that vantage point. At that point, the father says he flipped over a table, he was trying to get away, trying to get to his children, and here is what he saw happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO) ISRAEL DAHAN, FATHER OF SHOOTING SURVIVOR: The second I saw the rabbi running into the shul with his fingers been cutting (ph) and bleeding all over (inaudible). Then I saw him shooting in our lady that she passed away. Terrible feeling, what can I say? It's scary that we need to live like this. It's just unbelievable. There is no one really to protect us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The woman he is speaking of there and who brought him to tears is Lori Kaye. She was 60-years-old and she was someone who was inside and said, she's a great woman in this community, always very welcoming, always very kind. His father says he is destroyed. He says his family is suffering through all of this and they are not sure what they're going to be able to do next.

One thing he does say though is that he hopes that this rabbi -- and he believes that this rabbi will be able to bring this community together. Bring all the broken pieces back together and make it whole once again, Ana.

CABRERA: And we do expect to hear from that rabbi here shortly. Sara Sidner, thank you for bringing us those stories. Other survivors are telling their stories of how they escaped the temple.

A grandfather who is a member of the family Sara spoke with said he shielded his grandson from bullets by lying on top of the 4-year-old boy. That child had no idea the gunfire was real. He actually thought they were playing according to his grandfather who's visiting from Israel as well.

And as an EMT there, he tried to give CPR to Lori Kaye, the woman who died. And he is now haunted remembering how Kaye's husband, a doctor, also tried to save her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIMON ABITBUL, SHOOTING SURVIVOR: It's very hard to see this doctor. Many years doctor (inaudible) as I know, and his wife and he cannot do anything. It's very, very difficult.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:10:00] CABRERA: A friend says when the doctor realized the woman shot was his wife he fainted. Now, we expect the rabbi shot at this synagogue to speak any minute now. As you can see we have a camera ready so we can bring that to you live, his message to this community and to the nation. So stay with us here on CNN as we are also learning more about the victims of the synagogue shooting and how they all risked their own lives to save other worshippers.

Plus, breaking news in Virginia, rescue operations underway after several people get trapped in a cave. And new polls could mean trouble for a crowded field of 20 Democrats running for president. A new survey shows, more than half the voters have no idea who they plan to support. You are live in the "CNN Newsroom." (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Welcome back. At any moment now, the rabbi injured in the synagogue shooting in Poway, California is expected to speak about this attack. One woman was killed, three others including the rabbi were injured when a man marched into the synagogue yesterday and began shooting. We'll bring this press conference to you as soon as it happens live here on CNN.

Meantime, we're still more than 18 months away from Election Day 2020, but political junkies can't resist reading the early tea leaves especially when it comes to the Democratic Party. Twenty Democrats have announced a bid so far.

New Washington Post/ABC News polling shows that the one in last is at the top of the heap with just 13 percent, Joe Biden earns a very slim lead even though most of the polling was done before he officially announced his campaign.

[17:15:01] So, 54 percent of Democrats polled, more than half, have no preferred candidate at this point. So I'm going to put a couple of our Democratic commentators on the spot now. Bakari Sellers and former Hillary Clinton presidential campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle are with us.

And guys, just a quick heads up, I may have to interrupt at some point because we are expecting to hear from the rabbi really any moment, but let me start with you, Bakari, as we discuss 2020. There are so many options out there, what do the candidates need to do to get voters excited about them?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, I think that voters are already excited because we see the state of our country and my heart goes out to our brothers and sisters in the Jewish community for this hurt that they're going through now. But just even five weeks ago, we had three black churches burned down in Louisiana.

And so you see Democratic candidates, you see people of this country just wanting someone in the White House who represent true good values of this country. And so Joe Biden's message when he came out was one that was good. I didn't have a problem with his video and it is something that people are gravitating towards.

But beneath that, even more than the value propositions that Joe Biden or Pete Buttigieg or even Beto are putting forth. I think that people are beginning to see when you look at the 4 percent of Kamala Harris and the 4 percent of voters with Elizabeth Warren, that people also want tangible edible policy points.

And so we will see which one rules the day, but I think people are looking for someone just to turn the page on the hate that we're seeing in this country so much.

CABRERA: Patti, you've been there, you've done that with a Democratic presidential campaign. Still very, very early and hard for people to commit when the field is so large, right? When would you start paying attention to these kinds of polls? Does anything matter much before the Iowa caucuses?

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, I don't think the national polls matter at all. I think what matters at this point are the polls coming out of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, the first early states.

But the most important thing that a candidate can do at this stage really is to go to Iowa, Nevada, South Carolina, New Hampshire and meet people, meet folks, meet them where they live. Meet them in their homes, meet them at diners, get to know them. It's a very retail campaign at this stage of the game.

Voters want to kick the tires. They want to see if -- they want to get the measure of the man or woman. They want to see if they like him. They want to see if they like him enough to get to that second stage where they're ready to listen to their policies, you know.

So right now, I think that's what they all should be doing. That is what they're doing. I'm really impressed by Pete Buttigieg who came out of nowhere and is now, you know, three in the polls. Joe Biden has a very strong message. Bernie Sanders is a formidable candidate. I'm really looking forward to this election. I think it's going to be exciting.

CABRERA: And you just named all white men. We talk a lot about the diversity of this election cycle.

DOYLE: That's right, my bad. Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, we have more women running this time than ever before and it is exciting and thrilling and I got to tip my hat to Hillary Clinton for that one.

CABRERA: But why do you think it is the white men who are leading the polls right now, Bakari?

SELLERS: Well, I mean I -- just to steal a line from Patti, I don't think this matters right now. I think that for example I am -- I'm somebody who supports Kamala Harris and I think that she has an interesting path to the White House.

No one has a slam dunk, but if you go through Nevada, come to South Carolina, what we're going to see after the first three primaries after you leave Nevada and come to South Carolina. You're going to actually get an electorate that resembles the rest of the Democratic base.

And so I've always said this, I'm going to say it a thousand times between now and the Democratic nominee is chosen, but my mother and her friends are the people who choose the Democratic nominee for president. They are white, I mean, excuse me -- black women of a certain age are those who will choose this nominee.

And it's been that way for a few years now. It's going to be that way this (inaudible). And so after you leave South Carolina and you go to Super Tuesday, I honestly think I'm in the same camp as Harry Reid, that the choice will be made after Super Tuesday who the Democratic nominee will be, and black women will have a large to do in who that is.

CABRERA: Let me pick up on that point because we know Bernie Sanders struggled in 2016 when it came to people of color, the African- American vote in particular. He was booed at the She the People event this past week. And the room was filled with women of color.

Coming back to you, Bakari, on this question, what does he need to do? Why isn't his message going over well with many women of color? What does he need to do to earn your mother's vote, for example?

SELLERS: Well, I want to be clear, that Bernie Sanders wasn't booed because of the comment that he stated that he marched with King. Instead, Bernie Sanders was booed because once again he was evasive about how he was going to direct policies to influence and to effect individuals of color particularly women of color.

[17:20:07] And you had candidate after candidate on that stage. Beto O'Rourke did a great job. Elizabeth Warren did a great job of talking about those issues that directly uplift these communities. Bernie Sanders believes a rising tides lifts all boats. That's just fundamentally false.

I mean, that is not something that voters of color are going to gravitate to because for a long period of time in this country, voters of color had to have boats. So, rising tides cannot lift us up. And so he's going to have to put forth concrete plans, not these plans to expand the middle class in lofty terms, but concrete plans that are going to affect the lives of every day African-American voters if he's going to do well and turn that around.

Now, can he do it? Yes. I mean, Nina Turner, one of my good friends is one of her top surrogates, I mean, Cornel West. I mean, he has supporters, Killer Mike, he has supporters, just hopefully they can get through to him to help him effectuate these policies.

CABRERA: Patti, yesterday's synagogue attack that re-opened the discussion now about gun control. Congressman Eric Swalwell, I spoke to him yesterday. He talked about, you know, getting serious when it comes to gun control, banning assault weapons for example.

Beto O'Rourke definitely went there last night talking gun control. Health care we recall was the big issue in the midterms, Patti. Will it be gun control in 2020?

DOYLE: Well, I think gun control was a pretty big issue in the midterms as well. I mean, we are living now in an age where we no longer blink an eye when there's a mass shooting, whether it be in a synagogue or at a school. And of course it will be a major issue in 2020 unfortunately.

And we just saw the NRA going through a, you know, struggles in their own organization. And that I believe that every Democratic candidate is going to bring that up and we should be talking about this on a daily basis on a campaign trail in ads.

Kamala Harris basically said she's going to give Congress 100 days and if they don't present her with comprehensive common sense gun legislation, she's going to do it herself and I think that was very powerful especially now, given this environment, this very sad tragic environment that we're living in.

CABRERA: Patti Solis Doyle, Bakari Sellers, thank you both for being here and I appreciate the conversation.

SELLERS: Thank you.

CABRERA: Stay with CNN, at any moment now, the rabbi injured in that synagogue shooting in Poway, California will speak out about the attack. We'll bring that to you live just as soon as it happens.

Plus, a rescue operation is underway at this hour for several men trapped inside the Cyclops Cave in Virginia. At least one man has been rescued, but it is a slow painstaking process. We'll give you an update when we come back, live in the "CNN Newsroom."

17:25:00 (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: We're keeping an eye on this picture in Poway, California where we expect to hear from the rabbi who was injured in the synagogue shooting there in California yesterday. He's expected to speak out about the attack, about his injuries and share a message of healing for his community and the country.

We can also tell you we now know one woman, 60-years-old, was killed, three others including the rabbi, and an 8-year-old girl were injured when a man marched into the synagogue yesterday and began shooting. We'll bring you this press conference live just as soon as it happens.

We're also following breaking news out of Virginia. One man has been rescued from a cave in southwest Virginia. Four other men between 34 and 59 years old are still trapped inside what's known as the Cyclops Cave. They've been stuck there since Friday.

They were just exploring and their initial plan was to camp inside the cave through the weekend, but that all changed once the weather worsened. CNN's Ryan Young has been following this one for us. Ryan, is there any progress being made at this point on getting all these men to safety?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I know. In fact, we've been listening to investigators and rescuers talk about this. In fact, one person has been pulled out of course in the last about hour or so. What we do know is one of the things they're trying to work on is to make sure all the men are warm.

Some of the men decided to go down there in a t-shirt and the temperature down there is below 50 apparently. It is very dark. I think there's another shot of video they can actually shows the opening. You can see what rescuers are sort of dealing with. Once they get down it's a very cavernous area.

And what we're told they went down there to camp maybe through the weekend, but once it started raining and it got really cold, some of them started dealing with hypothermia. And they're trying to get them back up to speed in terms of getting them healthy enough so they can kind of climb themselves out of there instead of being able to be pulled out at this point. In fact, listen to one of the rescuers talk about this operation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY CHRIMES, SEARCH AND RESCUE COORDINATOR, VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: With cave rescue incidents, this has the potential to extend, you know, to 8 to 12 hours, depending on what all is involved with getting the subjects out. It may even extend beyond that just depending on the circumstances. Certainly, we're hoping for the best and that we can get them warmed up, get them moving, get them some energy back and get them out under their own power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Ana, one of these men are actually pretty lucky because they had a 22-year-old with them who was able to climb out despite the wet rocks that were in that area. He was able to get help for all them. This was on private land so they weren't supposed to be there. It will be interesting to see how this conversation goes, but of course this rescue method is still going on.

CABRERA: OK, Ryan Young, thank you so much. Now, let's listen in. This is Rabbi Goldstein who is the rabbi at the synagogue, the Chabad of Poway, which endured a tremendous tragedy yesterday with a man walking in and opening fire. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOLDSTEIN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you come closer to the microphone?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, rabbi.

GOLDSTEIN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We are here together standing on sacred property, a synagogue, a house of prayer, where 24 hours ago, saw terrorism in the worst of way. Yesterday was the last day of Passover.

[17:29:58] Passover we celebrate our freedom, our independence from slavery. Yesterday was a day that we came together for memorial service for those in the past generations. My wife and I came here 33 years ago. This was an empty piece of land. I was 24 years old, she was 20 years old.

We dedicated our life to do good for humanity. We built this community center with the help of all of our members and our supporters and our philanthropists. It was no easy task. We built it with one goal in mind, that this should be a warm home, a welcoming home, a safe home that people from all walks of life can come and partake in all of our programs, from our preschool, our synagogue, our wonderful friendship circle, serving children with special needs. This is what we are all about. After 33 years, we did not expect what

happened here yesterday. I was preparing for my sermon, I walked out of the sanctuary and I walked into the lobby and I met my dear friend Lori Kaye, a blessed member.

She came here because her mother recently passed away and she wanted to honor her mother at the memorial service. She invited her daughter, Hannah, to come and sit with her, her only daughter, who drove down from L.A. to be with her mother for the memorial service.

She looks at me in the lobby, she says, "Rabbi, what time is Yizkor? What time is the memorial service?" I told her at 11:30. I went to my office to freshen up. I came back and Lori is there. For those of us who know Lori, know that she is a person of unconditional love.

I have known her for close to 25 years. She was a pioneer member from our congregation. She used to work for Wells Fargo. She helped secure us the loan for this building, which is a very difficult task in the early '90s. She was one that went out of her way to always be there for those in need.

When one of our member's wives was diagnosed with breast cancer, she took it upon herself to drive her to every single doctor's appointment, to be there for the children. Lori had unconditional love for all. She was the most kindest, generous, great philanthropist and a great loyal friend which you don't find these days.

My wife and I had an amazing relationship with Howard and Lori. We were there when their only daughter was born, Hannah, and they were like brothers and sisters to us. Two weeks ago, our youngest daughter got married. Lori and Howard flew to New York to dance with us at this wedding.

And we just looked at the picture of the bride and Lori dancing together so beautifully. And here we are in the lobby, one of the holiest days of the year, the last day of Passover, smiling at each other, and I walk into the banquet hall to wash my hands. I walked two, three footsteps when I hear a loud bang.

I thought Lori may have fell or the table tipped over in the lobby right here. I turn around and I see a sight that I -- indescribable. Here is a young man standing with a rifle, pointing right at me. And I look at him. He had sunglasses on, I couldn't see his eyes, I couldn't see his soul.

I froze. My first concern was what's with Lori. Where did that noise come from? What's happened to Lori? And as soon as I did that, I took a look and more shots came running right at me and I lifted up my hands. I lost my index finger on this hand after four hours of surgery yesterday to try to save the index finger on the left hand.

I turn around and I saw the children that were playing in the banquet hall. I ran to gather them together. My granddaughter, 4 1/2 years old, sees her grandpa with a bleeding hand and she sees me screaming and shouting, "Get out, get out!" [17:35:01] She didn't deserve to see her grandfather like this. I

ushered all the children out. Mr. Almog, Israeli war veteran, who's already too familiar with these types of scenes, ran into the banquet hall, gathered more children, he got a bullet in his leg, risking himself to save the children.

And little Noya Dahan who was hit by shrapnel in her leg and very close to her eye, and thank God, Almog as well and Noya has been discharged from the hospital and they are in recovery. Miraculously, just miraculously, the gun jammed and in attendance at the synagogue there was a border patrol off duty, agent -- Mr. Jonathan Morales, who recently discovered his Jewish roots.

He would travel three and a half hours from El Centro to pray with us at our shul (inaudible) temple. He felt great camaraderie here. He felt this as his house of worship. And many of times I would say, Jonathan, you work for the border patrol, please arm yourself when you are here, we never know when we will need it.

As soon as the gun jammed and as soon as the shouting was going on, he jumped up in pursuit. Oscar Stewart, a former soldier, jumped into action, he tried to tackle down the gunman. The gunman just exited, ran away, got into his car. This is all I understand from hearsay, I didn't see it.

And Jonathan pursued him and was able to discharge his weapon and got the car a few times. After the shooter left, this terrorist left, I turn around to assess the situation, and I walk into the lobby and I see Lori laying on the floor unconscious. And her dear husband, Dr. Howard Kaye, who's like a brother to me, is trying to resuscitate her.

And he faints and he's laying there on the floor next to his wife. And then the daughter, Hannah, comes out screaming, "Daddy and mommy, what's going on?" It's just the most heart wrenching sight I could have seen. I was frozen in time. I grabbed a prayer shawl, wrapped my arms and my fingers with it that was just hanging, dangling and bleeding all over the place.

My congregation was gathered outside here, I said I got to do something. I got up on a chair right there and I looked at our congregation and I said, Am Yisrael Chai. We are a Jewish nation that will stand tall. We will not let anyone or anything take us down. Terrorism like this will not take us down.

We just came from Passover at the Seder table. We sang a song Vehi Sheamda, "that God has protected us," that in every generation they rise up against us, but god will protect us. Yesterday this horrific terrible event that has occurred here, in my own interpretation, Lori took the bullet for all of us.

She died to protect all of us. She didn't deserve to die. She's such a kind, sweet-hearted, just a good human being. She didn't deserve to die right in front of my eyes. I was the last one to see her, and to be with her. But I do know that this is Lori. This is her legacy, and her legacy will continue. It could have been so much worse. If the sequence of events didn't

happen the way it happened, it could have been a much worse massacre. But I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. The Chabad rabbi, the great Lubavitch Rabbi was my teacher. I grew up with him and he taught me that we need to battle darkness with light.

No matter how dark the world is. We need to think of light. A little bit of light, pushes away a lot of darkness. A lot of light will push away much more. And the rabbi would say, we all need to teach everyone, no matter what religion you're from, we need to do random acts of kindness.

We need to tilt the scale. There's so much darkness now in the world, but you and I have the ability to change. I will never forget yesterday.

[17:39:59] My missing finger will forever scar me physically. But it's going to remind me how vulnerable we are and also how heroic each one of us can be. We're all created in God's image. We are all partners in creation, no matter what faith or religion you're from, we all have to make this world a better place to prevent this from ever happening again.

And to this, I want to thank our dear mayor. I have been in Poway living here my whole life since I got married. Our children grew up here, now our grandchildren are growing up here. This is literally, I felt my safest place. Growing up in Brooklyn, New York was not a very safe place. I came to Poway because I knew it was a very safe place. And it still is the safest place.

No matter what happened, we are going to keep our freedom tight and close to us. We're going to stand tall. We're going to grow from it. And I also want to thank our sheriff department who has been absolutely incredible from the very first call and their response. I have enjoyed being a chaplain for the sheriff department for close to 20 years, sworn in by the former sheriff, Bill Colander.

And he right away told me what my mission is going to be, is to be able to be there for the deputies and give them the optimism, give them the positive feeling that the world is yet going to be a better place. And I want to take note for other victims who suffered yesterday, physically, emotionally, spiritually. The best we can do to combat is to grow, build and be stronger and stronger and stronger.

And yes, every single one of us can do that. I look around the myriad of cameras that are here, the message needs to be brought out to the public. How does a 19-year-old, a teenager have the audacity, the sickness, the hatred of -- to publicize such anti-Semitism, in his manifesto. How does he come here to a house of worship and do what he did.

Perhaps we need to go back a little earlier and think about, what are we teaching our children. What are we educating our children. We need to perhaps consider reintroducing in our public school system a moment of silence where children can start the day with pausing and thinking, why am I created? Why am I here and what am I going to do? So I certainly hope we can grow from this and we can become stronger

from this. Chabad Poway will survive this. I want to thank all of our community members I want to thank all of our neighboring churches from all over San Diego. To see all the religions come together and support is absolutely the warmest hug that we could have ever gotten.

And to be able to be together and show unity and solidarity, I want to personally thank all of my fellow priests, ministers who have been here with me, who have called me here, shared with me your condolences. We are grateful for that.

The community has set up a GoFundMe account to help us through this very difficult time and we're certain that San Diego will be able to participate and do your part in helping us rebuild and get back on our feet. I want to take this opportunity to bless everyone here with blessings of long life, great health and let's look for peace.

And yesterday, I was going to read the prophecy of Isaiah. I didn't get to do it because my hand was blown out. The prophecy of Isaiah was that the world is going to see better days. And it's not a prophecy of some kind of a -- an idea. It's reality. We pray for it to happen. And one good deed at a time will make that happen.

I'm appealing to all of our fellow Jewish members of our faith and others, this Friday night, this Saturday, go to your synagogue. We need to fill up those rooms. We need to show them that terrorism, evil will never prevail. Let's fill up the synagogues, let's stand tall, let's dance together.

And for our Jewish people who haven't been to synagogue in a long time, this is the time to do it, this is a personal request from myself as a rabbi asking you, come to synagogue this weekend just to show solidarity. And God will inspire you and bless you and we should all be blessed with greater and better times.

You should no longer have to have such press conferences, but only greater and better times for all mankind should happen speedily in our days. Amen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rabbi, can I ask you a question --

[17:44:58] GOLDSTEIN: As I was in my house, I received a personal phone call from our President Donald Trump. I was amazed to answer the phone and say the secretary of the White House was calling. And he spent close to 10 to 15 minutes with me on the phone. It's the first time I've ever spoken to a president of the United States of America.

He shared with me condolences on behalf of the United States of America. And we spoke about the moment of silence. And he spoke about his love of peace and Judaism and Israel and he was so comforting, but I'm really grateful to our president for taking the time and making an effort to share with us his comfort and consolation. And I'm open for any questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said before that this could have been much worse? Can you expand on that? Is this the idea that the gun had not jammed? I mean --

GOLDSTEIN: Well, I'm not an expert in this field. But for what I have observed, that he was standing right there in the lobby. He was aiming at me in the banquet hall, but he could have as easily turned left, gone into the sanctuary where the seats were full for the memorial service, and he could have just used all of his clips that he had and it could have been such a blood bath. I don't even want to fathom to think about how that would be. But that's --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we're going to try to wait with the questions until the end. We're going to hear the comments and then at the end, if there's time we'll take some questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like to ask our sheriff representative to please share with us.

JEFFREY DUCKWORTH, POWAY SHERRIF'S DEPARTMNET: Hello, my name is Jeffrey Duckworth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Closer to the microphone please.

DUCKWORTH: Yes, sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

DUCKWORTH: I'm Jeffrey Duckworth. I'm the captain here for the city of Poway sheriff's station, and our hearts go out to your congregation. We will be conducting extra patrols around not only the synagogue, but all of the religious establishments in our city and be reaching out to all of our people in the city and assuring them that we're here for them and we appreciate being here and being able to help serve. And that's what we're here for, and we're sorry for your loss.

GOLDSTEIN: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has the gunman been charged?

DUCKWORTH: I'm not going to talk about the -- anything going on right now. The sheriff's department homicide unit is in charge of the investigation. And any press releases that they send out we'll let them do that, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you be -- rabbi, we cannot live in fear, that's what you want people to know.

GOLDSTEIN: Absolutely. Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rabbi you came face to face with the shooter, did he say something to you? Did you say something to him when he entered the --

GOLDSTEIN: One second, I want to ask our mayor -- just please hold your questions -- our mayor to please --

STEVE VAUS, MAYOT OF POWAY, CALIFORNIA: We love you. This whole community loves you, and we'll be there with you.

GOLDSTEIN: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll take two questions. Go ahead, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the shooter say anything as he entered the synagogue? And did you say anything to him in that moment?

GOLDSTEIN: I did not see him enter. He entered already as I was walking. But when I turned around after the first shot, I didn't hear him say anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rabbi, you said that you asked for --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- active shooters in the past, was that true?

GOLDSTEIN: What was that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our understanding is that your congregation had trained for active shooting scenarios, is that true?

GOLDSTEIN: Well, the city of Poway had a conference that I attended and many members of our congregation where they were talking about the active shooters and how to deal with it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And how did that help you yesterday?

GOLDSTEIN: Tremendously because they evacuated so well. We had so many exit doors that it was so effective that people really -- they ducked down and they crawled out to safe areas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, that's going --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rabbi, (inaudible) reached out to you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- that's going to be it. That's going to be it for now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was Lori trying to protect you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I just want to make one announcement for everyone, at 7:00 p.m. at Valverde Park, there's going to be a candlelight vigil and you are welcome to attend.

GOLDSTEIN: Also, tomorrow is going to be the funeral for Mrs. Lori Kaye. It's going to be probably the hardest day of my career. It will be 2:00 right over here.

[17:49:58] You know, there is a common expression of paying last respects at a funeral. There is no last respects over here. Tomorrow we're going to salute Lori, we're going to salute her life and we're going to keep her legacy alive, the legacy of goodness and kindness. And our heart goes out to her husband, Howard, and their daughter, Hannah. And the show of support from our whole community at large has been exceedingly comforting to them and I thank you all for that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, rabbi.

GOLDSTEIN: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rabbi, thank you for speaking today.

GOLDSTEIN: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. Sorry --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Wow. Powerful message from Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein who described what happened just 24 hours ago. A little bit more than 24 hours ago when a gunman entered the synagogue. The Chabad of Poway, this building he established and built 33 years ago and he described coming face-to-face with that man.

But he spent most of his time talking about the bravery of so many other members of his congregation including Lori Kaye, the woman who lost her life and said Lori took the bullet for all of us. He, you could see, was injured, both of his hands bandaged. He lost one of his fingers. He could still lose another and he said that missing finger is going to be a reminder of just how vulnerable we all are and how brave we all are.

And he did talk about his message for his congregation. In fact, just after this shooting occurred, after the gunman had fled and this was his message then. "We are a Jewish nation that will stand tall. We will not let anyone or anything take us down. Terrorism like this will not take us down."

He also mentioned the comforting phone call he received from the president of the United States last night. He said that Mr. President spoke of his love of peace, of Judaism, of Israel and he said those words were really comforting. He was very grateful to receive that phone call.

I want to bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem. He spoke to one of the shooting victim's families because remember, there were two other people who were injured in this shooting, an 8-year-old girl and her uncle. Oren, first, what's your reaction to what we just heard from the rabbi?

OREN LIEBERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Incredibly powerful words from the rabbi, not only describing what he went through, and you could hear how difficult it was for him to talk about it especially when he talked about somebody who was obviously very close to him and his family, in Lori Gilbert-Kaye and her husband, and how much he was excited to see her in the morning. He stepped away for just a brief second and then when he looked back,

he said it was indescribable what he was looking at with the gunman standing there in the doorway, basically opening fire on him and his congregation and it was a very powerful moment. There were quite a few as he spoke, but one of them was in the chaotic scenes after the shooting itself.

He said he didn't know what to do at that moment. He stood up on his chair and shouted out to his congregation that was obviously in shock from what had just happened. He shouted, "Am Yisrael Chai" he said, which means the nation of Israel lives, the Jewish people are strong. And that was the message he wants to carry forward.

And then he said a message from when he was learning to be a rabbi, from when he was studying, that only light can drive out darkness and that's the message he wants to put forward. Having been through that, that is an incredibly powerful message from that rabbi at that moment to hear.

CABRERA: Absolutely. And he talked about the entire Jewish community coming to synagogue this week and urging the people to come together in a show of solidarity, show of courage. I know you spoke to the family members of some of the victims. How are they holding up?

LIEBERMAN: So, we spoke to the family of Almog Peretz, 34-years-old. He was actually mentioned by the rabbi because he was inside the congregation and when he realized that there was shooting, he was holding his niece. He took her to the dining room and started rushing out not only his niece through an emergency exit but the other children there.

We spoke to the family. In fact, they got a call from Almog Peretz while we were there and he spoke to them. They were relieved that not only their son, but also their granddaughter, Noya Dahan, the 8-year- old girl, that they were doing OK. They were recovering but still finding it hard to believe that the family actually left Israel because they felt it was too dangerous here, to move to San Diego for a better life. Here is their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIEBERMAN (voice-over): The streets of Sderot never felt quite safe enough for the family of Ahron Peretz. Too many times his family had to run to the bomb shelter as red alerts warned of incoming fire.

In the city of Sderot, right on the edge of Gaza here behind me, living under the threat of rocket fire, of mortar fire, is a constant. The family of Ahron Peretz left Sderot to try to get far away from that danger.

On Saturday morning during the Sabbath and the end of the holiday of Passover, police say 19-year-old John Earnest entered the Chabad synagogue in Poway and opened fire. Thirty-four year-old Almog Peretz was shot in the leg. He was at the synagogue with his family when he heard the gunshots. [17:54:56] He says the shooter aimed at him like a sniper and opened

fire as Peretz rushed to get his niece and other children out on emergency exit. hat niece, a 9-year-old Noya Dahan, was injured by shrapnel from the shooting.

SIMON PERETZ, ALMOG PERETZ'S BROTHER (through translator): He's now not just a hero of the family, which he's always been. He's a hero in the country for Israel and I'm very proud that I have a brother like this, not just that he saved his nieces, but that he saved all of the kids that were there.

LIEBERMAN (voice-over): In Sderot, (inaudible) Peretz was celebrating the end of Passover in Israel when news of the shooting shattered their party.

AHRON PERETZ, ALMOG PERETZ'S FATHER (through translation): We were very afraid, my wife and I. We started to run to figure out how we could get hold of them, how to find out what happened to them.

LIEBERMAN (voice-over): The family has watched the news nonstop trying to glean something, anything, from San Diego. They were standing in the exact spot a Qassam rocket landed a few years ago destroying their kitchen.

A. PERETZ (through translation): We had Qassam rockets here. We were hit by two Qassam rockets in this house. The children always said, let's leave, let's leave, but my wife and I stayed here and they left for the United States. They left because of Qassam rockets and suddenly terror comes to them in San Diego which is unbelievable. I didn't believe something like this could happen.

LIEBERMAN (voice-over): The family's top priority now is getting to San Diego as quickly as possible. The best thing they can do now, they say, is to be together.

(on camera): Ahron Peretz's family is trying to get their visas in place, their ticket in place so they can head over to San Diego as soon as possible to have that family together. I think it would be a dream for them if they could fulfill the rabbi's wish there to be together on the coming Sabbath to show the strength there of the Jewish community, Ana.

CABREA: Beautiful story. Thank you very much for sharing that, Oren Liebermann. We're going to take a quick break as we continue to cover this story. I want to leave you with these images. These are live pictures. You can feel the love. You can see the love in this community that is hurting so much right now.

There's the Rabbi Goldstein. We heard the mayor tell the rabbi as well at this press conference, "We love you, this whole community loves you and we will be here for you." And tonight, they're also remembering and continuing to think about Lori Kaye, a woman who as he put it, took a bullet for the rest of the congregation. There she is, 60 years-old.

A woman he described as an incredibly generous, somebody who was a pioneering member of the Chabad of Poway -- drove people to doctor appointments. She will be missed.

[17:57:31] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)