Rancho Bernardo, San Diego

The Poway synagogue shooting occurred on April 27, 2019, at Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California, United States, a city approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of San Diego, on the last day of the Jewish Passover holiday, which fell on a Shabbat. Armed with an AR-15 style rifle, the gunman, John Earnest, fatally shot one woman and injured three other persons, including the synagogue's rabbi. After fleeing the scene, Earnest phoned 9-1-1 and reported the shooting. He was apprehended in his car approximately two miles (3.2 km) from the synagogue by a San Diego police officer. A month before the shooting, Earnest had attempted to burn down a mosque in Escondido. In September 2021, Earnest was sentenced by a state court in San Diego County to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 121 years to life and another 16 years as part of a plea agreement. In December he was sentenced in federal court to life in prison with no chance of parole, plus 30 years, with the federal and state life sentences running consecutively instead of concurrently.

Chabad of Poway is an Orthodox synagogue and community center located at 16934 Chabad Way, Poway, San Diego County, California, in the United States. The congregation was founded in 1986, and the synagogue, completed in 1997, includes a 770-seat sanctuary, preschool, afternoon Hebrew school, senior center, library, and mikveh, serving the Jewish communities of Poway and Rancho Bernardo. On April 27, 2019, the synagogue was the site of a shooting in which one person was killed and three were injured.

Rancho San Bernardo was a 17,763-acre (71.88 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day San Diego County, California with two square leagues given in 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado and an additional two square leagues given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to José Francisco Snook. The grant was between present-day Escondido and Poway, and encompassed present-day Rancho Bernardo, 4S Ranch, the San Pasqual Valley, and Lake Hodges.

Rancho Bernardo High School, or RBHS, is a public high school in the Poway Unified School District of San Diego County, California, United States. Rancho Bernardo High School was opened in 1991 as the district's third high school.

Palomar Medical Center Poway is a hospital in Poway, California, operated by Palomar Health. It opened in 1977.

San Dieguito River Park is a greenway of 92,000-acre (37,000 ha) in San Diego County, California, United States. The park, established in 1989, stretches for 55 miles (89 km) from the mouth of the San Dieguito Lagoon (a lagoon between Solana Beach and Del Mar) to the Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve close to Julian, following the San Dieguito River. The park is a joint powers authority comprising the county of San Diego and cities of Del Mar, Escondido, Poway, San Diego, and Solana Beach. The park contains the Coast to Crest Trail with the planned length of 70 miles (110 km). As of 2017, 45 miles (72 km) of the Coast to Crest Trail have been built, as were 20 miles (32 km) of auxiliary trails. Open space within the park is a home to multiple species, including 230 birds. Coastal sage scrub habitat includes Least Bell's Vireo, Cactus wren, California gnatcatcher and San Diego horned lizard. A restoration project in the San Dieguito lagoon was completed in 2011 at the cost of 86 million dollars.

Mule Hill is a historical site in San Pasqual Valley, San Diego, California. Mule Hill site is a California Historical Landmark No. 452, listed on November 2, 1949. The Mule Hill, a low hill, was the site of a battle during the Mexican–American War on December 7, 1846. The Mule Hill battle took place the day after the Battle of San Pasqual. The battle of San Pasqual took place five miles east of Mule Hill. The Mexican Californios attacked General Stephen Kearny's troops on Mule Hill. Kearny and his troops were on the way to San Diego when they were again attacked. The Kearny troops counterattacked, took, and held the hill until December 11. Kearny and his troops ran short of food and were forced to eat mule meat, the hill's namesake. Captain Turner was the one who ordered Lieutenant William H. Emory and a squad of dragoons to attack the Californios lancers, Leonardo Cota's men, at Mule Hill, killing five Californios lancers. A historical marker was placed in 1950 on the northern side of Pomerado Road near Mule Hill by the California Centennial Commission. That location is now just before the north-bound on-ramp of Interstate 15.

Carmel Mountain Ranch, sometimes shortened to simply Carmel Mountain, or abbreviated to CMR by local residents and organizations is a community of San Diego, California, United States, in the northeastern part of the city. Despite its name, Carmel Mountain Ranch is actually in the shadow of Black Mountain. Carmel Mountain proper is about 10 miles west of the Carmel Mountain Ranch neighborhood.

Fairway Village is a neighborhood division of Carmel Mountain Ranch, located along Stoney Gate Place, parallel to Ted Williams Parkway and crossed by Shoal Creek Drive, in San Diego, California.

The Lake Hodges Bridge is a component of Interstate 15 that spans Lake Hodges in San Diego, just south of the city limits of Escondido, California. Lake Hodges Bridge is an important part of San Diego's north–south transportation axis. The original bridge was constructed in 1919. The bridge later became integrated into the newly constructed U.S. Route 395. As part of a roadway realignment and improvement project, the original structure was demolished in 1968, and replaced with a new structure in 1969. That bridge was subsequently replaced in 1981, when I-15 was built to supersede US 395. As a traffic bottleneck, the bridge is vulnerable to traffic jams in North San Diego County. The nature of the lake and the surrounding land makes the bridge the singular access into the city of San Diego from inland North County. The only two major ways around the bridge are the Del Dios Highway, a two-lane winding road to Interstate 5 via Del Mar, and the 25-mile (40 km) trip through Ramona into Escondido. Although paved access roads through the San Pasqual Valley to the east of Lake Hodges do exist, they are lightly traveled and are not designed to handle heavy traffic. The bridge is thus effectively the only crossing point for drivers on the route. The current bridge is a concrete viaduct. It was widened and replaced in 2006-2009 as part of a project to add managed lanes in the I-15 corridor. Depending on the amount of rainfall in San Diego County, Lake Hodges's water level fluctuates significantly. As such, Lake Hodges Bridge may cross over water or a dry lake bed from time to time. Due to the vast amount of vegetation that springs up when water levels are low, the area below the bridge has been jokingly referred to as "Hodges National Forest".

4S Ranch is a locale of San Diego County, California. It is located about 25 miles (40 km) north of downtown San Diego and 13 miles (21 km) east of the Pacific Ocean in the North County Inland area of San Diego. To the east of 4S Ranch is the San Diego community of Rancho Bernardo. To the west is the Santa Fe Valley, which includes Rancho Santa Fe. Lake Hodges forms the northern border of the community while Black Mountain Ranch, which includes Del Sur and Santaluz, and Rancho Peñasquitos are both situated to the south. The ZIP Code is 92127, and the community is inside area code 858.

Poway High School is a four-year secondary school in southern California accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Established in 1961, its approximately 2,408 students are from the city of Poway and the community of Rancho Bernardo in San Diego. The school has curricula for university-bound, college-bound, and vocation-bound graduates. About 1% of the high school's graduates join the military, 3% get civilian employment; 1% enroll in special schools, 37% enroll in two-year colleges, and 54% go to four-year colleges and universities. Some of its alumni are famous athletes.