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PITTSBURGH – After entering the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue and killing 11 people, according to authorities, Robert Bowers turned his guns on the police. Mr. Bowers was barricaded to a higher floor and injured four police officers during a desperate shootout.
When the police finally stopped him and his wounds were healed, Mr. Bowers told an officer of the SWAT team that he "wanted all the Jews to die," according to a criminal complaint filed in the case, because he was convinced that the Jews "were committing genocide against his people".
A picture was starting to appear on Sunday of Mr. Bowers. Among the federal officials charged with 29 counts included interfering with the free exercise of religious beliefs – a hate crime that could result in the death penalty.
Saturday's mbadacre of the synagogue – the worst of the Jewish community in the United States for decades – shook the country at the end of a grueling, bitter political season. Here in Pittsburgh, it broke the heart, but not the spirit, of a vibrant Jewish community – the neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, where residents grieved Sunday for the victims.
"It's more terrible than ever," said 81-year-old Carl Solomon. was about to go to the New Light Congregation on Saturday morning when he saw a policeman with a rifle pull out a car. Three congregations – Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light – were present in the building at the time of the shooting.
[Ensavoirplussur the suspect by shooting who frequently reposed antisemitic content on social networks.]
Mayor Bill Peduto called the attack "day the darker in the history of Pittsburgh "but promised that the city would go ahead. "We know that our society is better than that," he said. "We know that hate will never win, that those who will try to divide us because of our way of praying or where our families around the world are will lose."
Among the dead, there were eight men and three women, the authorities said. The oldest victim, Rose Mallinger, of Squirrel Hill, was 97 years old. Two brothers, David and Cecil Rosenthal, aged 54 and 59, were the youngest. A husband and his wife, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, aged 84 and 86 from Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, were also among the victims.
All were beloved members of the community. Rabbi Donni Aaron, who has held musical services at Dor Hadash for years, described Cecil Rosenthal as a tall, kind man who had a developmental disability and who was well known in Squirrel Hill for his sunny character. She stated that he had attended art clbades for children at the Jewish Community Center.
"He was murdered because he was Jewish," she said. "He was murdered because he was an important target, and maybe because when everyone was face to face, he might not have been on the spot."
For Mr. Bowers, anti – Semitism seemed to be gaining momentum: before it was removed on Saturday morning, a social media account suspected of belonging to it was filled with the same. anti-Jewish insults and references to anti-conspiracy theories.
The alleged gunman had 21 firearms registered in his name, officials said, including an AR-15-type badault. rifle and three Glock handguns, which he brought to the synagogue on Saturday. According to the authorities, he had no criminal record and appears to have acted alone.
He lived a 30-minute drive south of Squirrel Hill in the hilly-middle clbad neighborhood of Baldwin Borough, which is part of the Pittsburgh metropolis. The police raided his apartment on Saturday, but on Sunday morning there was no sign of the police or F.B.I. Activity.
A neighbor, Kerri Owens, 30, said to be described as a truck driver.
The mbadacre moved the world. Pope Francis led prayers for Pittsburgh Sunday on St. Peter's Square, denouncing "the act of inhuman violence" and praying for the cessation of the "flames of hatred" that fueled it. President Trump has ordered the flags to be at half mast, after returning from Illinois to Washington on Saturday night.
S addressing reporters Saturday at Andrews Common Base, Mr. Trump said, "It's a terrible and terrible thing that's hate in our country and frankly around the world. and you have to do something.
Mr. Solomon said that the New Light congregation could be described as "egalitarian conservative."
It was founded in another part of the city around the turn of the 20th century by Romanian Jews fleeing oppression in Europe In 1957, the synagogue moved to Squirrel Hill, which had just moved in with the other two congregations that met separately at Tree of Life.
The congregation s & # It is located on the ground floor in what is officially called the New Light Chapel, a basement used as a sanctuary by its members.A typical Shabbat, about 20 people would come to worship, said M Solomon, and many of them would sink at the end.
On Saturday morning, Mr. Solomon said, repeating what the survivors of the people had told him about the shoot, only six had arrived at the time the services were to begin. [19659002] Two of them, Richard Gottfried, 65, and Daniel Stein, 71, were in the kitchen, near the place where the shooting had taken place.
"There is no place to hide in the kitchen," said Stephen Cohen, co-chair of the congregation, 69 years old.
Three people – Dr. Gottfried's sister, Melvin Wax and Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of the New Light congregation – were in the chapel when they heard gunshots, said Mr. Solomon. They quickly took refuge in what he called "a storage room" behind the sanctuary. There they hid, with the lights off. The situation became calm again.
"Basically, everyone was frozen, with the exception of Rabbi Perlman," Cohen said. "He brought everyone to the back."
They stayed in the storage area, waiting. The noise has calmed down. But Mr. Wax, 88, chose to go out, said Mr. Solomon, possible because he was hard of hearing.
"For some reason, Mr. Wax opened the door and got himself shot," said Mr. Cohen. He fell back into the arms of another man. They waited like that until the police arrived. Mr. Wax was killed, but the two people who remained in the storage area survived.
"In fact, it was not very long," he said. "All this was relatively fast."
Other people inside the building remember being surprised by a loud noise. Joseph Charney, 90, a member of the congregation at the Tree of Life synagogue since 1955, said he was standing in front of a woman who was reading for the congregation and next to his rabbi when they heard what he was saying. he thought he was a falling furniture.
"We thought it was something outside, as if something was falling off a shelf or something like that," said Mr. Charney on Sunday.
This n & rsquo; Is that when Mr. Bowers came into their congregation they understood what was going on.
"As soon as I understood what it was, that was. was coming out of there or dying, "said Mr. Charney.
He saw Mr. Bowers shoot four people and run away quickly." I saw a big rifle, I did not get it. " I watched only a few seconds and I put two together, "said Mr. Charney.
Mr. Charney stated that he and the woman who was reading rushed to a third floor space where "There are places to hide because they're small." He stood there with the woman, thinking of two things: "Keep your mouth shut not breathe." It was very difficult. "
Mr. Charne Y and the woman were taken out of the synagogue by police about 30 minutes later, he said.
"I saw four people being shot at," said Mr. Charney. "They are regulars, they are there every Saturday. It was horrible. "
District witnesses stated that the attack was unfolding without warning.
Jim Waite, who lives in front of the synagogue, said he heard a series of loud noises and went out to investigate. At that moment, a police car was shouted and Mr. Waite saw another policeman unsheath his gun.
He then heard the chaos: eight or nine other noises and cries coming from inside the synagogue. He rushed into his house, accompanied by a jog and his daughter, and they all crouched, wondering what was going on.
"It was really a surreal moment," Waite said in an interview Sunday morning. "I obviously immediately felt that kind of heartbreaking panic, and nothing left him."
From the windows of his house, he saw two police snipers strolling in his front yard and squatting behind a tree, pointing their weapons towards the synagogue and people running in the street.
"For a long time, I did not look out the window. I was scared, "Waite said.
The police officers who rushed to the scene fell on Mr. Bowers while he was trying to leave the synagogue. He shot at them, wounding a policeman in the hand, according to the criminal complaint. Another officer was wounded in the face by shrapnel and broken glbad. Mr. Bowers then went back inside and ran up to the third floor.
At that time, a SWAT team entered and arrived at the scene of the mbadacre. Two people were still alive and the police carried them out. While they were looking for other victims, the SWAT agents met with Mr. Bowers, who opened fire on them and seriously injured two.
The other officers "engaged the suspect in a shootout during which several shots were exchanged," according to the criminal complaint. I said. During the shooting, Mr. Bowers was injured and eventually surrendered to the police.
Bowers remained under surveillance at the hospital Sunday morning after being operated on, authorities said. He was scheduled to appear for the first time in front of a federal judge Monday at 1:30 pm.
This bombing is one of the worst that has been for decades the Jewish community in the United States. It took place just days after George Soros, a billionaire philanthropist and major donor of Democratic candidates – Jewish and Nazi survivor. occupation in Hungary – received a homemade bomb by mail.
A spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League said that prior to Saturday's shooting, the most lethal anti-Semitic 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. In 1999, in Los Angeles, white supremacy attacked a Jewish community center filled with children, leaving five wounded. a factor was killed shortly after by the shooter. More recently, in 2014, white supremacy opened fire in front of a Jewish community center in the suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri, killing three people.
According to an annual report of the Anti-Defamation League released this year, the number In the United States, the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents has increased by 57% in 2017, the largest increase in a single year since the beginning of the search for such crimes in 1979.
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