The San Diego Sheriff's Department identified John T. Earnest (born June 8, 1999),[5] a 19-year-old nursing student from San Diego, California, as the suspect.[6] A user identifying himself as Earnest published an anti-Semitic and racist open letter to 8chan (the place of radicalization for the shooter) that cited the Christchurch mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand and Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania perpetrators Brenton Harrison Tarrant, Robert Bowers and Nazi Party/Nazi Germany leader Adolf Hitler as inspirations for the Poway shooting. The author also attempted to livestream the shooting on Facebook but failed. The author of the open letter specifically blames Jews for the supposed "meticuosly planned genocide of the European race" and other ills.