A suspect in the murder of 11 people of the Pittsburgh synagogue charged with 29 counts of indictment

Armed with an AR-15 type badault rifle and at least three handguns, a man shouting anti-Semitic insults opened fire inside a police officer. Pittsburgh synagogue, killing at least 11 people and injuring four policemen and two others, authorities said.

In an unleashing described as one of the deadliest against the Jewish community in the United States, the badailant stormed the congregation of Tree of Life, where worshipers had gathered in separate rooms to celebrate their faith and blindly fired at the crowd, breaking what had been done otherwise. been a peaceful morning.

The perpetrator, identified by police as Robert D. Bowers, fired several minutes and left the synagogue when police, dressed in tactical clothing and armed with rifles, met him at the door. According to the police, Bowers exchanged shots with officers before retreating to the interior and barricading himself in a room on the third floor. He finally surrendered.

Bowers, 46, was shot and wounded, although authorities said it was unclear whether the injuries were self-inflicted or if the police had shot him. He was in a stable state Saturday at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Federal officials accused Bowers of 29 charges. They include interfering with the free exercise of religious beliefs – a hate crime – and using a firearm to commit murder. Authorities said that he had no criminal record.

Among ceremonies held on Saturday, a ceremony commemorating the birth of a child was among the victims, according to law enforcement officials. Among the injured, there was a 70-year-old man who was shot in the chest and a 61-year-old woman with soft tissue injuries, said Dr. Donald Yealy, president of the Emergency Medicine Department. from the University of Pittsburgh Medical School.

The attack touched the heart of the city's vibrant Jewish community in the leafy Squirrel Hill neighborhood, home to several synagogues, kosher restaurants and bakeries. A few hours later, hundreds of people gathered at three separate interfaith vigils during a cold, rainy evening to mourn the dead and pray for the wounded.

The synagogue attack took place on a calm and rainy morning and took place in the midst of a bitter and vitriolic election season in mid-term and in the context of what appears to be a resurgence of speech and hate crimes in America. It also occurred following the arrest on Friday morning of a man who, according to authorities, would have sent over a dozen homemade bombs to the detractors of President Donald Trump, including several prominent Democrats.

Calling it the "most horrible crime scene" he has seen in 22 years with the FBI, Robert Jones, a special agent in Pittsburgh, said the synagogue was celebrating "peaceful service" when faithful were slaughtered and "brutally". murdered by a gunman who targets them simply because of their faith. "

"We simply can not accept this violence as an integral part of American life," Governor Tom Wolf said at a press conference Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh. "These senseless acts of violence are not what we are as Pennsylvanians and are not what we are as Americans."

The anguish of Saturday's mbadacre exacerbated the feeling of national malaise at the increasingly hostile political rhetoric. Trump's critics claimed that he was partly responsible for the recent acts of violence, as he had attracted the attention of nationalism on Twitter and at his rallies, accusations that Trump had denied.

On Saturday's attack, Trump, speaking to reporters at the Andrews Common Base in Maryland, said, "It's a terrible and terrible thing that hate is happening in our country and around the world , and that something must be done. "

"The results are very devastating," he said, adding that if the temple "had some kind of protection," it could have been a very different situation.

Later, speaking to reporters as he disembarked from Air Force One in Illinois, Trump had announced his intention to travel to Pittsburgh, but he did not specify when.

US and world leaders have condemned the attack. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was "heartbroken and dismayed" and that "all the people of Israel are complaining of the suffering of the families of the dead."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has stated that criminal prosecutions by the Department of Justice "could result in the death penalty".

"Hatred and violence on the basis of religion can have no place in our society," said Sessions. "Every American has the right to attend their place of worship safely."

The Saturday mbadacre was at least the third shooting in a place of worship in three years. In November, an armed man killed 26 worshipers in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. In 2015, a white supremacist killed nine worshipers in a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

This occurred as concern grew over illegal immigration and over the last decade the number of hate crimes has increased. According to an annual Anti-Defamation League report released earlier this year, the number of reported antisemitic incidents in the United States increased by 57% in 2017, the largest increase in a year since the beginning of the ADL lawsuits in 1979..

The attack also dealt a heavy and painful blow to the Jewish community in the United States. It took place just days after George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and main donor of Democratic candidates, Jewish and survivor of the Nazi occupation of Hungary, received a bomb in the mail. Also last week, a Senate campaign sign for Josh Hawley, Attorney General of Missouri, was treated with a swastika.

On Saturday, the Tree of Life congregation organized services for three separate congregations when the armed man broke into with an AR-15 badault rifle, a Glock and two other handguns, and started shooting.

Police dispatchers received the first emergency calls at 9:54, Jones told the FBI, and police officers, including a SWAT team, were dispatched a minute later. Bowers had already shot 11 people and was about to leave the synagogue, Jones said, when he met police and shot them.

He returned to the synagogue to hide from the SWAT officers who were settling in, said Jones. He spent about 20 minutes in the synagogue, officials said.

"When I first arrived, they were already starting to extract people," said Chief Scott Schubert of the Pittsburgh Police. "To see these officers face the dangers of firing people and putting them on the safe side was incredible."

Residents near the synagogue were invited to stay at home. Ben Opie, 55, who can see the synagogue in his backyard, said his wife was about to leave their home to volunteer when SWAT agents approached their homes and said that they were not going to be there. there was an armed man in the synagogue.

"They chased my wife inside," he said. "They just said to enter the house."

On Saturday evening, the authorities were still reconstructing a portrait of Bowers and searched his apartment with a robotic bomb detector and police dogs. His apartment is in a neighborhood dotted with small and medium-sized brick houses, about a 25-minute drive south of Pittsburgh in the suburb of Baldwin Borough.

Representative Mike Doyle, who represents the 14th District of Pennsylvania, where the synagogue is located, said Bowers had registered 21 firearms.

"I do not think anyone really knows this guy, except that he was an odious anti-Semite who had published anti-Semitic views," Doyle said. "We are all pretty numb, in shock, it's not really something that's happening a lot here."

A spokesman for the ADL said that before shooting Saturday, the deadliest antisemitic attack in recent US history dates back to 1985, when a man killed a family of four in Seattle. He had mistakenly thought that they were Jewish. More recently, in 2014, a white supremacist fired at a Jewish community center in the suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri, killing three people.

"I am afraid to say that we may be at the beginning of what has happened in Europe, in the continuation of anti-Semitic attacks," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who prayed at the inauguration of Trump. He met during a telephone interview from Austria, where he was visiting the Mauthausen concentration camp.

"It's not choked in the bud," he continued, "I'm afraid the worst is yet to come."

Anti-Semitism seemed deeply ingrained for Bowers. Before being deleted on Saturday morning, a social media account meant to belong to him was filled with anti-Jewish insults and references to anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.

In January, an account with his name was created on Gab, a social network that presents itself as a haven of freedom of speech. The application, born of claims of anti-conservative bias of Facebook and Twitter, is a popular gathering place for right-wing activists and white nationalists whose views are not welcome on other platforms of social media. Among the first members were right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and Andrew Anglin, founder of the Daily Stormer neo-Nazi website.

A few weeks ago, Bowers' account posted a link to the website of HIAS, a Jewish non-profit organization, which was planning a Shabbat ceremony for refugees in various parts of the country. The legend said, "Why hello there HIAS! Do you like to bring hostile invaders among us?

And a few hours before the gunman enters the Tree of Life synagogue, the report writes again: "HIAS likes to bring in invaders to kill our people. I can not stand by and watch my people being slaughtered. Screw your optics, I go in. "

HIAS said Saturday in a statement: "There are no words to express how devastated we are by the Pittsburgh events this morning."

Shortly after Bowers was named a suspect in the shooting, Gab confirmed that the name of the account, which had been verified, matched that of the suspect. The company has archived the account before disconnecting it and issued a statement stating that it was cooperating with the forces of the order.

"Gab disavows and unequivocally condemns all acts of terrorism and violence," reads the statement.

The Tree of Life congregation dates back to 1864 and was originally located in downtown Pittsburgh, said Alvin K. Berkun, former rabbi of Tree of Life and now emeritus rabbi, who stayed at home on Saturday after his ceremony to take care of his sick wife.

He moved to his current site at Squirrel Hill in 1952, where he now occupies most of a corner block. About 26 percent of Jewish households in the Pittsburgh area are in Squirrel Hill, while 31 percent of Jewish households are largely settled in surrounding neighborhoods, researchers at Brandeis University said in a study in 2017.

About 48% of Jewish children in the Pittsburgh settlement live in Squirrel Hill, according to the study conducted on behalf of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Federation.

"Squirrel Hill is truly an incredible safe community," he said. It is the heart of the Jewish community of Pittsburgh with its kosher restaurants, bakeries and Jewish community center. "I have lived for a while in Israel and know what security can mean, but the truth is that the two safest neighborhoods I know are those of Squirrel Hill and Jerusalem. I have lived in both. "

During the holidays, when the sanctuary has almost reached its capacity of 1,450 faithful, there are security guards. But Saturday morning, when there would be about 75 people, "everything would have been wide open".

In recent years, the size of the congregation has decreased and three congregations meet on Saturday morning in three different parts of the synagogue. "It's a very busy place on Saturday morning," he said.

Berkun had heard that the shooter had barricaded himself at one point in his old office. Yet threats were something that he had never really thought about, not here.

As soon as he heard the news of the shootings on social media, Zachary Weiss, 26, attempted to get in touch with his father, Stephen Weiss, a long-time member of the congregation of Tree of Life. .

At that time, Elder Weiss was already in action, applying the far too real protocols of active fire training set up by members of the congregation at Tree of Life the year former. Recounting what his father had told him, the youngest Weiss said the services had just started when he heard a loud noise.

"There was a loud noise and some people who investigated heard two more loud sounds," he said. "It was when my father and the rabbi discovered that it was the sound of gunshots."

The rabbi asked everyone to go to a safe place and, once the members of the Tree of Life had done so, his father had examined the other gatherings that were meeting in the town. Saturday building. The break was on a lower floor and he first checked to see if those present were safe. They were.

Weiss stated that his father had never seen the shooter but, before proceeding with the evacuation, he was close enough to see the shell shells.

"It will take a lot of time for us as a community to understand that," he said.

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An armed man suspected of spreading insults and anti-Semitic speeches on social media burst into a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday and opened fire, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest attacks on Jews in the country. American history.

The 20-minute attack on the Tree of Life in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood left six others injured, including four police officers who went to the scene, authorities said.

The suspect, Robert Bowers, exchanged shots with the police and was shot several times.

Federal prosecutors accused Bower of 29 counts of indictment, including using a firearm to commit murder. Bowers, who was "in fair condition" in a hospital, should also face hate crime charges before federal authorities.

"Know that in this case, the justice will be swift and severe," said Scott Brady, chief attorney general of western Pennsylvania, during a press conference held late in the day. afternoon, calling the mbadacre "an act of terrible and indefinable hatred."

Read also: Anti-Semitic social media publications could give clues to Pittsburgh fatal shooting

The shooting took place in the midst of a series of highly publicized attacks in an increasingly divided country, and one day after the arrest of a Florida man accused of sending a series of homemade bombs to renowned democrats.

The shooting also immediately revived the long-standing national gun debate: President Donald Trump said the result would have been different if the synagogue "had some sort of protection" against an armed guard, while the Democratic governor from Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, said that once again "dangerous". the weapons put our citizens in danger. "

Trump has announced plans to travel to Pittsburgh, but does not provide details.

The shootings began just before 10 am, after authorities said Bower had entered the big synagogue with an badault rifle and three handguns. According to Michael Eisenberg, the outgoing president of the Tree of Life, three separate Jewish congregations held Sabbath services in different parts of the tall building at the time of the attack.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office told the victims that victims had learned that a British milah – a ritual circumcision ceremony in which a boy was also given his name in Hebrew – was also taking place, although Law enforcement officials later stated that no children were among the dead or wounded. .

"It's a very horrible crime scene," said Wendell Hissrich, public safety director for Pittsburgh, visibly moved. "It's one of the worst I've seen."

Mbad shootings immediately alerted Jewish communities in the country. Authorities in New York, Chicago and elsewhere have increased security in Jewish centers.

Bob Jones, head of the FBI's Pittsburgh office, said the worshipers "were brutally murdered by a gunman simply targeting them for their faith," although he warned that the shooter's mobile was not the target. was not yet known. In a statement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Department of Justice would file a hate crime and other charges against Bowers.

Bowers, who had no apparent criminal record, expressed anti-Semitic views virulently on a social networking site called Gab, according to an Associated Press review of an archived version of the publications published under his name. The cover photo of his story featured a neo-Nazi symbol and his latest articles included a photo of a fire pit similar to those used in Nazi concentration camps used to cremate Jews during World War II. Other publications refer to false conspiracy theories suggesting that the Holocaust – in which about 6 million Jews perished – is a hoax. He also wrote about a Jewish "infestation" using an insult to the Jews.

Gab confirmed that the alleged gunman had a profile on his website, popular with right-wing extremists.

Before the shooting, the poster supposed to be Bowers also wrote the following: "HIAS likes to bring invaders to kill our people. I can not stand by and watch my people being slaughtered. Screw your optics, I go in. "

HIAS is a non-profit group that helps refugees around the world to find security and freedom. The organization claims to be guided by Jewish values ​​and history.

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said Saturday's attack was the deadliest for the Jewish community in US history.

"Our hearts are breaking for the families of those killed and wounded in the Synagogue of the Tree of Life and for the entire Jewish community of Pittsburgh," said Greenblatt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was "heartbroken and dismayed" by the attack.

"All the people of Israel are saddened by the families of the dead," Netanyahu said. "We stand with the Jewish community in Pittsburgh. We stand alongside the American people in the face of this horrific anti-Semitic brutality. And we all pray for the speedy recovery of the wounded.

In Canada, Jewish federations in Canada said in a statement that police have increased its presence and increased patrols near Jewish facilities across the country. "We continue to remind our community leaders that it is important to remain vigilant and to ensure that existing security protocols are followed," the statement said. "Tonight we are joining Pittsburgh and we are joining Jewish communities around the world in mourning for lost lives."

More than 1,000 people, some holding candles, gathered Saturday night for a street vigil in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, in honor of the victims, whose names were not released immediately.

Trump called the shooting "mbad murder" which "is pure evil, hard to believe and is frankly unimaginable".

Trump has at times been accused by critics of failing to adequately condemn hatred, including accusing "both sides" of the violence that took place during the Charlottesville white supremacist rally.

On Saturday, he said that "anti-Semitism" must be fought everywhere and wherever it appears.

The synagogue is located in the residential area of ​​Squirrel Hill, about 10 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh and the center of the Jewish community of Pittsburgh. The facade of the concrete building, which looks like a fortress, is punctuated by rows of swirling and modernist stained glbad windows depicting the story of creation, the acceptance of divine law, the one to the other, "according to its website. Among its treasures is a "Holocaust Torah" saved from Czechoslovakia.

His sanctuary can accommodate up to 1,250 people.

Eisenberg, the former president of the synagogue, said that Tree of Life officials had received no threat to his knowledge before the shooting. But he said that security was a concern and that the synagogue had started working to improve it.

Chuck Diamond, a former synagogue rabbi who retired more than a year ago, said the building was locked during the week and equipped with security cameras. "But on the Sabbath, the door is open," he said.

"You know, you always worry that something will happen," said Myron Snider, head of the New Light Congregation Cemetery Committee, which meets at Tree of Life. Snider just came out of the hospital on Thursday and missed Saturday's service.

"But you never dream that it happens that way," Snider added. "Never dream that it would happen like that."