KPBS Midday Edition

Alleged Poway Shooter's Religious Beliefs Outlined In Letter Being Debated Among Evangelical Christian Pastors

By Megan Burke / News Editor, Mark Sauer / Host, The Roundtable

Published May 2, 2019 at 9:30 AM PDT

This story was published more than 5 years ago.

Kyle Fox, 4, and his father Brady Fox hold a sign at a vigil held to support the victims of Chabad of Poway synagogue shooting, Sunday, April 28, 2019, in Poway, Calif. A man opened fire Saturday inside the synagogue near San Diego as worshippers celebrated the last day of a major Jewish holiday.

A small evangelical Christian denomination is roiling over a letter allegedly written by the 19-year-old man charged with the Chabad of Poway shooting.

A small evangelical denomination is roiling over a letter allegedly written by the 19-year-old man charged with the Chabad of Poway shooting. The suspect pleaded not guilty at his arraignment this week. He’s being held without bail on charges of killing one person and wounding four others at the synagogue. The charges also reference it as a hate crime.

The letter the shooter appears to have posted online, which was quickly taken down, is causing serious soul-searching among leaders in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, according to a story in The Washington Post.

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Julie Zauzmer covers religion, faith and spirituality for The Washington Post. She joins Midday Edition Thursday to talk about the connection between the alleged shooter and an evangelical denomination of the Presbyterian church.

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Megan Burke is an Emmy-award winning news editor overseeing the environment, health, and racial justice and social equity reporting beats. Prior to her current role as editor, Megan spent more than a decade as a producer for KPBS Midday Edition, a daily radio news magazine and podcast. Other news production credits include KPBS Evening Edition, KPBS Roundtable, and San Diego’s DNA, a two-part documentary highlighting the region’s oldest traditions and culture using personal artifacts and oral histories of San Diegans.

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Mark Sauer

A newspaperman for more than 30 years, Mark Sauer joined KPBS in October 2010 and previously served as the host of the KPBS Roundtable. He spent 27 years as a reporter and editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune after stints at The Houston Post and at two papers in his native Michigan. A features/human-interest writer in the UT's Currents section for many years, Mark also spent about a third of his UT career as an editor and reporter on the Metro Desk. He has covered a wide range of events: Wild fires in Southern California and Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast; Super Bowls and the World Series; foster care and child-abuse issues; the Roman Catholic Diocese's sexual-abuse scandal and bankruptcy; royal visits of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Princess Diana; Republican and Democratic national conventions; high-profile criminal trials; and many other stories, from the silly to the sublime. Along the way, he interviewed everyone from presidents to pan-handlers. His work exposing the false accusations and prosecutions of several San Diegans for murder, rape and child abuse garnered Pulitzer Prize nominations and many regional and local journalism awards, including Best in the West, the Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism and several San Diego and California bar-association awards. Mark has a degree in journalism from Michigan State University.

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