San Diego DA Seeking Death Penalty In Poway Synagogue Shooting And More Local News

Speaker 1: 00:00 It's Friday, March 6th I'm Priya Sri there and you're listening to San Diego news matters from KPPs coming up. This San Diego County district attorney's office announced that it will seek the death penalty for a man accused of a shooting at a synagogue in Poway and non American citizens with language skills were recruited through a special program to serve in the U S military. But the program has been at a standstill. That and more San Diego new stories coming up. Speaker 1: 00:36 The San Diego County district attorney's office announced Thursday that it will seek the death penalty for a man accused of a hate crime. Shooting KPBS is Sarah [inaudible] has more on the deadly shooting inside a Poway synagogue. Last year, John earnest allegedly open fire inside the Hublot of Poway on April 27th, 2019 leaving one woman dead and three others wounded after the shooting. Police say Ernest told the nine one one dispatcher that the Jewish people were destroying the white race. Authorities say the shooter posted an open letter in which he claimed to have spent four weeks planning the attack. He also claimed to be responsible for an arson attack at the Islamic center of Escondido. Earnest is charged with murder, attempted murder, arson and hate crime allegations. The trial is currently set for June 2nd although his attorney's expected to ask for it to be delayed to prepare for a defense against capital punishment. There are more than 700 people on California's death row, but the state has not executed anyone since 2006. Sarah gets Yannis KPBS news. San Diego County health officials are asking residents to get ready for a possible Corona virus pandemic and they say someone confirmed to have the virus may have exposed others in the South Bay. KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman explains Speaker 2: 01:53 T and T says one of its retail employees in San Diego County tested positive for the virus leading the company to close several stores for cleaning. County chief medical officer, dr Nick gifan. TD says it's unclear yet if the virus has spread to anyone else Speaker 3: 02:07 had minimal exposure and uh, some contact with some of their colleagues at work. Those colleagues have all been identified and they are currently on home quarantine. Speaker 2: 02:23 Meanwhile, County public health officer, dr Wilma Booton says, residents should start stockpiling food, water, and medications. Speaker 3: 02:30 What is it that you need to sustain yourself for a period of two to three weeks or more? That where you wouldn't have to go outside and interact with anyone else Speaker 2: 02:40 but officials don't want to cause a panic. Speaker 3: 02:43 There is a needle to be thread, frankly speaking between adequate preparation versus reactive inappropriate response. Speaker 2: 02:54 There is still no evidence that the virus is spreading in San Diego, but health officials say it's just a matter of time. Matt Hoffman, Speaker 1: 03:00 K PBS news. After two years of work, Derby United holds the grand opening of its headquarters in Encanto, KPBS arts and culture reporter Beth Alka, Mondo checked out the dual rink facility that officially opens to the public on Saturday. Last December when I visited Derby United headquarters, it was nothing more than a muddy field in wet concrete slab. Today, there's a bang drink and a flat track where Derby United can hold practices and play roller Derby bouts nilly gold, far better known by her Derby name of Isabel ringer says it's been a long journey to create this home for her team, but it's also important to bring new people to the city. Speaker 4: 03:37 We know that roller Derby is a sport that a lot of people haven't tried before and it requires a lot of specialty gear and we don't want the gear and the finances around that gear to be a barrier for people to play roller Derby. So when you come here, you get a free trial for a couple of weeks and you also can use any of this gear here. Speaker 1: 03:54 The grand opening is this Saturday from two to 5:00 PM with the Derby United skaters holding an exhibition bout to show people who they are and what they do. Beth like Amando KPBS news, a new study calculated how much damage a major earthquake along the Rose Canyon fault would do in San Diego County. KPBS reporter Joe Hong spoke with experts about what the region can do to prepare Speaker 5: 04:16 research shows that in the next 30 years there's a nearly one in five chance of a 6.7 or greater magnitude earthquake happening in San Diego County. Heidi Tremaine is the executive director of the earthquake engineering research Institute, which released a new study on how a 6.9 earthquake along the Rose Canyon fault could impact the County. Speaker 6: 04:35 We're expecting a large fault rupture almost, um, six feet, um, and also a lot of liquefaction impacts. And so we're worried that that can coastal communities could really be lacking some basic services for many months after an earthquake of this magnitude. Speaker 5: 04:49 The study estimates that a 6.9 quake would damage about 200,000 buildings and displaced 38,000 households costing the County $38 billion. Joe Hong KPBS news, Speaker 1: 05:01 San Diego comic Fest bills itself as the friendly, intimate comic convention experience. It kicked off its eighth year last night with an opening party and begins its panels today. KPBS arts and culture reporter Beth OCHA. Mondo has this preview this year. San Diego comic Fest focuses attention on to icon celebrating their centennials this year. Science fiction author Ray Bradbury and stop motion animator and filmmaker Ray Harryhausen in their honor, the comic Fest cafe is being dubbed the race cafe plus there will be panels all weekend long looking at the impact they've had on pop culture comic Fisher's the same town as comic con international and exist in its shadow in terms of size. But that's fine with comic Fest chairman Matt Dunford. Speaker 5: 05:46 The keyword here is intimate, it's friendly, it's intimate, it's small and San Diego comic con is always going to be the, you know, behemoth. It's going to be the giant in the room. It's got tracks, hundred thousand people Speaker 7: 05:57 every year and it's a big event and I think it's run beautifully for everything that goes on. But understand that's not the ideal experience for everyone. Sometimes they can be flustered by big crowds or too much going on, but you know, something I often said about comic Fest is you go in on day one and there's all these great comic book creators around you. It's like you look up to them as gods, but by the end of the weekend you just called them friend and it's a really remarkable experience to, to enjoy. Speaker 8: 06:22 San Diego comic Fest continues through Sunday at four points by Sheridan on arrow drive, Beth like Amando KPBS news, some us military recruits are fighting with the government to allow them to serve. They were recruited through a special program that allowed non American citizens into the armed services if they had foreign language skills or other special expertise. But the program is now at a standstill. Josie [inaudible] reports for the American Homefront project at an army recruiting station in the Phoenix suburbs. So John Lee shows me a wall of photos. These are recruits. He's gone to military drills with this guy will super motivated all the time. He is now a combat engineer. Lee points to another photo she's on. She's a medic. Lee's photo is up there too on the top left, but more than four years after he signed up for the military, he hasn't been able to serve a sophistical with them together. Speaker 8: 07:17 And I'm still here alone. If I left me. Lee did not see this coming. It was an army recruiter who convinced him to join the military because of a program called madni. It offered citizenship to foreign nationals with special skills it needed. Lee looked forward to becoming naturalized within months of enlisting in exchange for his Korean language skills. I had great feeling and a good perspective on USA. Goldman Lee at first come to the U S as a foreign exchange student to learn English while in high school in Louisiana. He joined the junior ROTC, retired army Lieutenant Colonel James Gardner was his instructor. Speaker 9: 07:54 Every event that we had soldier on leave was there. Color guard drill team, rifle team. She was an excellent shooter Speaker 8: 08:03 but after Lee was sworn into the army, his ship database of training got postponed. Then it happened again and again. The military said Lee posed a security risk because his parents provided financial support from South Korea, which Lee says hasn't been true for years. Another red flag for screeners was that Lee's relatives had served in the South Korean military. Lee says that is true, but service is mandatory for men. There sometimes thing. If all this thing was just a dream, and I'm the one who is crazy. Supporters of madni say that Lee's story is common among recruits who joined in and around 2016 that's the year of the Obama administration stop taking new applicants. Then the Trump administration subjected those recruits already in the pipeline to tighter screening Speaker 10: 08:50 and they have effectively killed the mob knee program by imposing all kinds delays and arbitrary reasons for denial. Speaker 8: 08:59 Steven yeller teaches immigration law at Cornell university. While the government has accused several magni recruits of suspicious behavior, yeller says he's mystified by how the larger group is being treated Speaker 10: 09:10 given the problems that the military is having in meeting its recruiting goals. Foreign nationals are an important component to our military. Speaker 8: 09:22 A Pentagon spokeswoman calls the vetting process essential to national security and time consuming because the military has limited ability to verify information. In some recruits home countries, Mark or Corian leads a center for immigration studies which supports tighter controls on immigration. It's better safe than sorry. Quite frankly, Korean says, too many immigrants have been treating map as an easy shortcut to citizenship. Speaker 11: 09:47 Mammy turned into just another way of immigrating to the United States instead of a very targeted program for a handful of really high value people, Speaker 8: 09:58 but some rejected map. New recruits have challenged the militaries decision in court and been reinstated. These also trying to get the military to take him back, let her supporting him have come from the likes of his old Jay ROTC instructor, James Gardner, the retired officer, had moved to Arizona and has let Lee live for free with him. Leah says, it's funny, like if I did something suspicious, he's the first one who will report me. In the meantime, Lee's student visa has expired. He can stay in the U S until he's done with college, then he may have to return to South Korea and serve there. I'm Josie Juan. This story was produced by the American Homefront project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans funding comes from the corporation for public broadcasting.