this seems like it might be important. Poway synagogue where shooting happened received government grant for security.
POWAY, Calif. – A gunman fired his semi-automatic rifle at Jewish worshippers after walking through a Southern California synagogue's open front door, a spot that synagogue leaders determined last year needed improved security.
The Chabad of Poway synagogue applied for a federal grant to install gates and more secure doors to better protect that area. The $150,000 was approved in September but only got awarded in late March.
"Obviously we did not have a chance to start using the funds yet," Rabbi Simcha Backman told The Associated Press.
Backman, who oversees security grants for the 207 Chabad institutions across California, declined to provide details on the planned security enhancements or to speculate whether they might have changed the outcome of Saturday's attack.
The shooter killed a woman and wounded an 8-year-old girl, her uncle and Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was leading the service on the last day of Passover, a major Jewish holiday.
Backman said the synagogue north of San Diego is considering asking authorities to allow some of the money be used to hire security guards.
The synagogue doesn't have guards now. But after a gunman massacred 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last October, rabbis of California's Chabad organization, including at the Poway synagogue, began asking members who were trained law enforcement professionals to carry their weapons at services, Backman said.
The congregation also received training from the city of Poway on responding to an active shooter, and Goldstein applied for a concealed carry permit.
On Saturday, an off-duty Border Patrol agent who attends the synagogue fired at the gunman as he fled, hitting his vehicle. The 19-year-old suspect, John T. Earnest, has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges.
The Poway synagogue was built two decades ago with security features such as video surveillance, but it started to beef up its measures in 2010. The synagogue received and spent money from a $75,000 grant that records show was earmarked for a security assessment, 16 cameras, fencing and lighting.
The synagogue applied for another grant in May 2018 to upgrade those cameras and add other enhancements. It was approved in September, but the funds weren't released until March 22.
read more here :
https://www.foxnews.com/us/ap-exclusive-synagogue-got-us-security-grant-before-attack