SAN DIEGO _ For the family of a little girl hurt Saturday in a shooting at a synagogue in Poway, the violence was not their first brush with anti-Semitism since moving to the United States from Israel in search of a safer life.
The girl, identified as Noya Dahan, 8, of Mira Mesa, was hit with shrapnel in the face and leg Saturday when a gunman opened fire on worshipers at Chabad of Poway synagogue. Noya and two other people were hurt in the shooting, and a woman _ Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, of Poway, Calif. _ was killed. Noya's uncle was among those injured in the attack.
The suspected shooter, a 19-year-old man authorities identified as John T. Earnest of Rancho Penasquitos, was arrested Saturday after allegedly fleeing the synagogue in a hail of bullets fired by a Border Patrol agent working at the synagogue as a security guard.
Saturday's shooting was not the first anti-Semitic crime against the Dahan family since moving to the U.S. from Israel in 2014. Their home in Mira Mesa was vandalized during the Jewish Passover holiday in April 2015, according to news reports at the time.
Giant red swastikas were painted on the family's garage door and the hood of their pickup around 11 p.m. local time April 5, 2015, according to news reports.
Noya's father, Israel Dahan, told Fox 5 San Diego at the time that his family had moved from Israel to find a safer life, and the vandalism had left them fearful.
Recalling the vandalism and the shooting Sunday in an interview with an Israeli radio station, Israel Dahan said the crimes had not caused the family to regret its decision to move to the U.S., according to the New York Times.
"We love America ... It can happen anywhere _ in any mall, and in any hospital and in any family gathering and in any place," Dahan told the station, according to the article. "We are strong. We were born to be strong."
Noya's injuries were not life threatening, authorities said Sunday.
