Parents were ‘falling to the ground’ before learning children were safepublished at 19:43 GMT
19:43 GMT
Madeline Halpert
US Reporter
Lisa Stern, a member of the temple, went to the congregation this afternoon after she heard the news about the vehicle ramming.
A member of the temple for over 20 years, she has several friends who were working inside the building today, including rabbis and a social worker. But she chose not to text them to see if they were alright, worried that the pinging of their phones could be dangerous in the event of a shooting.
Waiting across the street, Stern says she saw anxious parents and grandparents arriving to make sure their children at the preschool were safe. The students were quickly evacuated and no one was harmed, police said.
“At first, when they didn’t know, the parents were like falling to the ground,” she says. “Thankfully it was minutes until they said the kids were safe.”
Stern says it seems like the suspect had knowledge about the temple, which she says is set far back and not visible from the road.
“They obviously knew where they were going because they knew where to do maximum damage,” she says.