Rabbi recalls being face-to-face with synagogue shooter during attack

The rabbi of a California synagogue that was the scene of a mass shooting recalls the moment the suspected shooter pointed a gun at him.

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein says he was in the middle of his Saturday sermon at the Chabad of Poway when he heard loud noises. Goldstein says during a phone interview Sunday on “Today” he was “face-to-face with this murderer, this terrorist” when he turned around.

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, just out of surgery for a gunshot wound, continues to speak about the synagogue shooting. “As soon as (the gunman) saw me, he started to shoot towards me and I just sort of put my hands up and my fingers got blown away.” #ChabadofPoway #SundayTODAY pic.twitter.com/ZTXkcK4VRa

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 28, 2019

“He was holding the rifle and was looking straight at me, and as soon as he saw me, he started to shoot,” he says.

Goldstein says he put his hands up to protect himself and lost one of his fingers in the shooting.

One person, 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye, was killed in the shooting. The rabbi remembered her as a “pioneering, founding member” of the congregation and says he is “heartbroken” by her death.

Three others, including Goldstein, were injured.

— with AP