SAN DIEGO _ The 19-year-old nursing student who allegedly opened fire in a Poway synagogue Saturday trained at a Scripps Health system hospital, according to a memo sent Monday to all staff by the company's chief executive officer.
In a passionate email to all staff and physicians, Chris Van Gorder, Scripps' president and CEO, expressed his rage at the violence visited on the wife of one of his colleagues.
"My rage only got worse once I learned the shooter was a nursing student who had performed some of his clinical training at a Scripps hospital," Van Gorder said. "How can anyone who is training or has been trained to save lives, take the life of another _ because of hate?"
While he did not address suspected shooter and white supremacist John T. Earnest by name, Van Gorder did say Monday that the man did some of his nursing "practicum" work at a Scripps facility in Encinitas.
Meanwhile, Scripps was in the process of coping with Earnest's actions, which killed Lori Gilbert-Kaye, the wife of Dr. Howard Kaye, a respected clinician who practices in Scripps Coastal Medical Group's Vista office.
Van Gorder pushed back against the racist message espoused by the shooter in an "open letter" now widely available online.
"Please join me in rejecting hatred," Van Gorder said. "Let's embrace each other and our differences, as it's our differences and diversity that make us stronger. This must end, and it starts with us."
More information on how the suspected shooter performed as a nursing student helping to care for patients was not immediately available.
