eleven dead in a synagogue

It could be the most deadly anti-Semitic attack ever in the United States. A gunman opened fire on Saturday in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, while worshipers gathered for the Shabbat service. According to the official record, eleven people were killed and six others injured. The alleged gunman surrendered and was taken into custody. It will be prosecuted, among others, for anti-Semitic crime and risk the death penalty, said the US Minister of Justice, Jeff Sessions.

It all started shortly after 10:00 (14:00 GMT). The killer broke into the synagogue during a ceremony for the birth of a child. After a confrontation with the police, he was apprehended, placed in custody and hospitalized, official sources said. Since the revelation of the attack, the badessment given first by the US media has increased from hour to hour, from four to eight and eleven dead. Pittsburgh Public Security Director Wendell Hissrich said there were also six wounded, including four among the police. No children were killed. "The scene is terrible inside. It's one of the worst crime scenes I've ever seen, and I've been on plane crashes, "he added to the camera, apparently very emotional.

Antisemitic attack probably the deadliest in US history

The Tree of Life synagogue was founded 150 years ago in Pittsburgh. It is located in Squirrel Hill, where the heart of the Jewish community in this great Pennsylvania state is beating. The federal agency responsible for controlling weapons, tobacco and explosives, ATF, said on Twitter that special agents were present on site. New York police said it was improving security around places of worship in the city, including additional patrols.

The shooter was identified by authorities as Robert Bowers, 46, author of numerous anti-Semitic messages on social networks. The media had described a "bearded white man of high build". According to the local channel KDKA, which quotes police sources, he entered the building shouting: "All Jews must die!"

"This is probably the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in US history," said Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League, the country's leading anti-Semitism organization. . The shooting comes as the United States recorded in 2017 an increase in antisemitic attacks with some 1,986 incidents (harbadment, vandalism, badaults) over the year up 57% compared to 2016, according to the Anti-Semitic defamation league.

Debate on guns and the death penalty

President Trump, who once considered canceling an election rally scheduled for Saturday for the mid-term legislative elections on 6 November, has finally decided to maintain it. "We are going to have a heavy heart, but we are going," he told reporters. "Anti-Semitism and the persecution of Jews are one of the darkest and most vile traits in human history," the US president said from Indianapolis. "There must be no tolerance for anti-Semitism or any form of religious hatred," he added.

Earlier, Donald Trump felt that this act had little to do with weapons legislation, baduring that things would have been different if there were security guards in the synagogue. The US president, however, wanted to strengthen the legislation on the death penalty. "When people do this kind of thing, they should be sentenced to death," he said before flying out of Air Force One for a meeting with farmers.

His daughter Ivanka Trump, converted to Judaism, ruled that America was "stronger" than the acts of a "perverse and sectarian anti-Semite." "My heart is bleeding after the news coming from Pittsburgh. The violence must stop, "wrote on the social network, the First Lady Melania Trump. The shooting is an attack on freedom of religion, denounced Vice President Mike Pence. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has condemned a "horrible anti-Semitic" attack. French side, the President of the Republic has expressed his "sadness" on Twitter. "We are with the American people, once again bereaved," added Emmanuel Macron who then, in English, "condemned this horrible anti-Semitic act of Pittsburgh".