The man suspected of killing a woman in a shooting at a Southern California synagogue pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges Tuesday.

Lori Kaye is believed to have thrown herself in front of her synagogue’s rabbi to protect him from a gunman’s bullets in a heroic move that epitomizes the life she led, her family and friends said.

San Diego County Sheriff William Gore said that a man fired on the worshippers with an AR-type assault weapon.