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Authorities named the 11 people killed Saturday when a gunman with three pistols and a semi-automatic badault rifle attacked a synagogue in Pittsburgh – the deadliest attack against Jews from the history of the United States.
Among the dead are a 97-year-old woman, a husband and wife, and two brothers, all of whom attended services in the Tree of Life synagogue when Robert Bowers burst through an open door. shouting anti-Semitic insults and firing shots. . The 46-year-old Pittsburgh resident is also charged with injuring six others, including three police officers shot dead during a fight, and faces numerous allegations of aggression. , homicide and crime motivated by hate.
"They are committing genocide against my people," the suspect told a SWAT officer after being shot and captured, according to a federal criminal complaint released Sunday. "I just want to kill Jews."
The Mayor of Pittsburgh, Bill Peduto, called the attack "the darkest day in the history of Pittsburgh" after reading the names of the victims Sunday morning. The mayor also challenged President Trump's suggestion that the synagogue should have armed guards.
"We will not try to rationalize irrational behavior," Peduto told reporters. "We will work to eradicate it. We will strive to eradicate it from our city, our country and our world. Hate will have no place anywhere.
The mbad shootout targeted a congregation that is the anchor of Pittsburgh's large and narrow Jewish community, a mbadacre that the authorities immediately described as a hate crime while investigating the suspect's antisemitic antecedent history. line.
The FBI said that Bowers was not known to the forces of order. He was charged with 29 counts of crimes of violence and firearms offenses committed by the federal government, federal prosecutors said Saturday.
A man named Bowers had issued antisemitic statements on social media before the shooting, stressing his anger that a Jewish non-profit organization in the neighborhood had helped refugees settle in the United States. In what appeared to be his last social media just hours before the attack, the man wrote, "I can not sit and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I go in. "
Bowers reportedly broke into regular synagogue service Saturday at 9:45 with an AR-15 rifle and three handguns, authorities said. Witnesses told police that he had shouted anti-Semitic statements and started shooting. The synagogue, located in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, did not have armed security guards.
[An attack on a tight-knit Jewish community has left it shellshocked]
Police received calls for an active shooter at 9:54 and sent agents one minute later. Police said Bowers had left the building and had met the police officers who had responded to the call, pulling one before retiring to the synagogue to hide.
The police pursued Bowers on the third floor of the synagogue, according to a criminal complaint. He allegedly opened fire, repeatedly firing on two officers and seriously injuring one of them before being injured during the shooting and being captured.
According to the complaint, while Bowers was detained with multiple gunshot wounds, he told a SWAT operator "that he wished the death of all Jews and that they (Jews) were in committing genocide against his people. "
Bodies lay throughout the synagogue – three women and eight men were killed and two others wounded.
Four policemen were injured during the intervention, three wounded by bullet and one by shrapnel. They were in a stable state on Saturday night. Saturday night, it was not clear whether Bowers was talking to the authorities or had a lawyer.
Tammy Hepps, from left to right, Kate Rothstein and her daughter Simone Rothstein, all of Squirrel Hill, read a religious text and hug at the intersection of Shady Avenue and Northumberland Street, after the death of several people at the Tree of Life Squirrel Hill synagogue, Pittsburgh section. (Alexandra Wimley / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
Federal prosecutors have filed 29 counts against Bowers, accusing him of federal crimes against civil society. Bowers was charged with interfering with the exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death, having used a gun to commit murder during a crime of violence, obstructing the person's life. Exercise of religious beliefs that caused injury to a public security officer and the use of a firearm during a violent crime.
The charges were announced in a statement issued by Scott W. Brady, US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and by Robert Jones, Special Agent in charge of the FBI Pittsburgh office. The court documents were not immediately available and had to be published on Sunday morning.
The Pittsburgh mbadacre is another example of homicidal fury and fanaticism on the margins of American society. It combines elements of many other active shooter incidents that have horrified Americans in recent years and has highlighted the unusual frequency of events involving many victims in this country compared to almost every other country in the world.
Once again, the suspect was a man armed with a semi-automatic weapon, like the gunman who killed 49 people in the Orlando Pulse nightclub in 2016. Once again, the crime scene was a place of worship , a "soft target ", as was the case at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where a disturbed armed man in the hope of killing his mother-in-law slaughtered 26 people during a Sunday ceremony last November .
And again, the victims belonged to an ethnic or religious minority with a long history of persecution – like the nine African-American faithful killed three years ago when a white supremacist invaded a session of the United States. Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Caroline from the south
"It was the most lethal and violent attack against the Jewish community in the country's history," said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and National Director of the Anti-Defamation League. "We have never had an attack of such depravation where so many people have been killed.When you go to a synagogue, you say," I want to kill all the Jews ", that is a hate crime. "
Police officers check for possible entries to The Tree of Life synagogue where several people were killed and others injured during a deadly shootout Saturday in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh. (Alexandra Wimley / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
Political, religious and civic leaders condemned the Saturday mbadacre and pledged to support the Jewish community.
"We simply can not accept this violence as an integral part of American life," said Pennsylvania's Governor, Tom Wolf (D), at an afternoon press conference, the trembling voice. "These insane acts of violence are not what we are as Pennsylvanians, they are not what we are as Americans."
[[[[A community gathered to mourn the victims of the shooting in a synagogue]
President Trump denounced the mbadacre and said something had to be done about it, suggesting a more frequent and faster use of the death penalty, saying that it should be "put in vogue" .
"It's a terrible thing, a perpetual hatred in our country and around the world," Trump said before boarding Air Force One on Saturday afternoon for a flight to Indianapolis. At a protest in Murphysboro, Illinois, later in the day, the president denounced anti-Semitism at full throats: "This devilish anti-Semitic attack is an badault on all of us. It is an badault against humanity. We will all have to work together to extract from our world the heinous poison of anti-Semitism. "
He added that the mbadacre could have been avoided if the synagogue had armed security guards. Trump has often suggested that more armed people could deter mbad shootings, making such comments after the shootings in Parkland, Florida and Orlando in recent years. Members of the armed forces were actually present during these two shots.
Trump ordered the flags to be placed at half-mast on public grounds until sunset Wednesday, in a "solemn respect" for the victims, the White House said in a statement.
People stand on the stairs of the Sixth Presbyterian Church as the crowd rushes down the hill and down the street during a vigil where an active shooter fired several people at the Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh. (Stephanie Strasburg / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
The Anti-Defamation League, founded more than a century ago, has documented numerous deadly attacks against Jews in the United States, such as the badault of a white supremacist against the the holocaust of the United States in 2009 that killed a security guard. The previous deadliest antisemitic attack, said the ADL, was actually a case of mistaken religious identity causing four deaths. It happened in 1985, when a racist attacked Charles Goldmark and his family in Seattle, thinking that they were Jewish.
The ADL said Saturday that antisemitic incidents had increased by 57% in 2017, with 1,986 events documented, a league peak attributed to an increase in such incidents in high schools and college campuses.
Carl Chinn, president of the non-profit network Faith Based Security Network, said the Saturday mbadacre was the fifteenth murder – defined as four or more deaths – in a place of worship in US history. The first was the bombing perpetrated against the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963, which killed four African American girls, he said.
On Saturday, members of the Tree of Life synagogue gathered at a nearby mourning center to find out what was happening to their loved ones. On social media, synagogue members quickly relayed information about people in safety. But there would be 11 names – all adults – missing at registration.
[[[[The alleged shooter of the synagogue seems to be rioting against Jews and refugees online]
Arnold Freedman, a 91-year-old synagogue member and psychologist, was planning to visit Tree of Life at 10 am, but stayed at home because a repairman was working in his basement. He started receiving calls from friends right from the start of the shootout.
"Our climate in the country is currently very disturbed. You see these hate crimes, and no matter who, right or left, will blame others. It's terrible, "said Freedman. "Unfortunately, there are too many people like that and they have too much access to guns."
A young boy holds a sign at the intersection of Murray Ave. and Forbes Ave. in the section of Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh during a memorial vigil in the honor of the victims of the deadly shooting that took place at the synagogue of the Tree of Life on Saturday. (Gene J. Puskar / AP)
Chuck Diamond, who grew up in Squirrel Hill and was rabbi at Tree of Life for seven years, said he'd always feared a day like this.
"When I led the congregation, I always had in mind that something like this would happen," Diamond said. "It's a terrible thing to feel. When you enter our sanctuary, you want it to be a place where you feel safe. "
As news of the shooting spread, the police locked the neighboring congregation of Rodef Shalom. The police also went to synagogues in Washington, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to enhance security.
"It could have been so easily our congregation," said Rabbi Aaron Bisno of Rodef Shalom. "We do not know what motivated the shooter, but when something like that strikes, its randomness is terrifying."
The Tree of Life building houses three synagogues and has many communities worshiping simultaneously, said Bisno, calling it the "center of Jewish life on the morning of Shabbat."
According to Bisno, Pittsburgh has hired a former FBI agent to play the role of security officer. His congregation has recently been trained as an active shooter. Saturday was the first time the community needed to put it into practice.
"It's scary," he said. "It could happen anywhere anytime."
[[[[The Pittsburgh Synagogue Mbadacre is the culmination of the worst fears for American Jews]
The FBI said Saturday that the authorities thought Bowers was acting alone. Authorities who entered the crime scene described it as staggering in its savagery.
"This is the most horrible crime scene I've seen in 22 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation," said Jones, an FBI special agent.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the shooting "reprehensible and totally contrary to the values of this nation" and said that the Justice Department will bring to justice the crime of hatred and other charges "that could lead to punishment of death".
"The actions of Robert Bowers represent the worst of humanity," said Brady, the US Attorney General of the Western District of Pennsylvania. "In this case, justice will be swift and severe."
The Pittsburgh attack took place days after the arrest of a Florida man who allegedly sent over a dozen homemade bombs to prominent critics of Trump and amid a feverish campaign campaign attack. Several leaders have said that the country's political rhetoric has become too polarizing, perhaps inspiring recent violence.
Gab, a social media platform that has attracted many far-right users, said Saturday that the company had suspended an account that matches the name of the alleged gunman, forwarding the messages to the FBI. The story included repeated attacks on Jews, references to white and neo-Nazi supremacist symbols, and attacks on the Hbrew Immigrant Aid Society, known as HIAS, which works with the federal government to resettle refugees in American communities. .
Members and supporters of the Jewish community gather for a candlelight vigil, in memory of those who died earlier in the day during a shootout in the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh , in front of the White House in Washington. DC, October 27, 2018. – On October 27, a heavily armed gunman opened fire at a baptismal ceremony in the Pittsburgh US City Synagogue, killing 11 people and injuring six others during the most deadly antisemitic attack in recent American history. . (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / Getty Images
Mark Hetfield, President and CEO of HIAS, said his agency had been the subject of much hate and was actively working to help people who were fleeing such hatred.
"But the United States is supposed to be a place of refuge, and a synagogue is supposed to be a place of refuge," said Hetfield.
Tom Malinowski, Democratic candidate for the New Jersey Congress, served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in the Obama Administration, He posted a statement on his website stating that the disturbed people had always existed but that the political climate had changed.
"Our highest national leaders legitimize a rhetoric once confined to the paranoid extremes of our society – against the" globalists ", all of whom are prominent Jews, complaining of" white genocide ", attacking immigrants to" threaten our culture " and spreading conspiracy theories about the crazy pots that plead in favor of imprisoning their political opponents, "said Malinowski, who has long headed the Human Rights Watch office in Washington. "These words are like sparks in the essence of disturbed minds. These words can kill. "
The recent series of mbad shootings prompted Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life to write on the synagogue blog, lamenting the lack of national action to combat gun violence in the aftermath of the school shootings from Parkland.
"Unless there's a dramatic turnaround in the midterm elections, I'm afraid the status quo will not be changed and the school shootings will not resume," Myers wrote. "I should not be forced to include in my daily morning prayers that God watches over and protects my wife and wife, the two teachers. Where are our leaders? "
Kellie B. Gormly was reported in Pittsburgh. Amy B Wang, Deanna Paul, Devlin Barrett, Wesley Lowery, Abby Ohlheiser, Kristine Phillips, Mike Rosenwald and Katie Zezima contributed to this story in development.
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