Shots in Pittsburgh synagogue: murdered man of 11 people faces hate crime investigation

An armed man with an badault rifle killed 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue during the Saturday morning ceremony in what the Anti-Defamation League described as "probably the most deadly attack" from the history of the United States ".

Law enforcement officials said Robert Bowers – a 46-year-old man who had made virulent and anti-Semitic online statements – was arrested after a shootout with police and was facing accusations of federal hate crime.

"The justice in this case will be swift and severe," said Scott W. Brady, US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Brady said Bowers could be accused Saturday of what he called a "terrible and indescribable act of hatred".

The authorities described a rampage at the Tree of Life synagogue, the oldest Jewish congregation in the city, staggering by its savagery.

"This is the most horrible crime scene I've seen in the last 22 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation," said Robert Allan Jones, Special Agent for the FBI Field Office in Pittsburgh. "Members of the Tree of Life synagogue conducting a peaceful meeting of services at their place of worship were brutally murdered by an armed man who was simply targeting them because of their faith."

The 11 people killed were adults, said Wendell Hissrich, public safety director for Pittsburgh. Six people were also injured, including four police officers who responded to the shots, he said.

Witnesses told the police that Bowers broke into the synagogue shouting anti-Semitic slurs and started firing. Hissrich said the authorities had started receiving calls on an active shooter in the synagogue at 9:54 and the officers had been sent a minute later.

Jones said that Bowers entered the synagogue, shot dead 11 people and left when he met police officers. He opened fire on an injured officer and then returned to the synagogue to hide, Jones said. Other officers responded to the call and after an exchange of gunfire, Bowers was taken to hospital with several gunshot wounds, authorities said.

Hissrich declined to say whether Bowers was talking to authorities, and he was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the shooting "reprehensible and totally contrary to the values ​​of this nation. As a result, the Ministry of Justice will prosecute criminal cases motivated by hate crimes and other criminal prosecutions, including charges that may result in the death penalty. "

Bowers appears to have repeatedly targeted Jews using an account on the Gab social media site, which is popular with white supremacists and far right users. Gab turned off an account on behalf of Bowers shortly after the Saturday shootout.

Messages posted by the account under his name, retrieved before his deactivation, included symbols of white supremacy and anti-Semitic messages. Recent publications focused specifically on the Hbrew Immigrant Aid Society, known as HIAS, which is one of nine organizations working with the federal government to resettle refugees in American communities.

"HIAS likes to bring in invaders who would kill our people. I can not stand by and watch my people being slaughtered. I'm going, "reads the account that seems to have been released just before filming on Saturday morning.

Mark Hetfield, President and CEO of HAIS, has no formal relationship with the Tree of Life synagogue, but has helped hundreds of refugees resettle in the Pittsburgh area in recent years.

"Our agency is the oldest refugee agency in the world and we have had horrific dark times of our time. We have witnessed a lot of hatred and refugees, by definition, are fleeing hatred, "said Hetfield. "But the United States is supposed to be a place of refuge and a synagogue, a place of refuge."

The account that seemed to belong to Bowers was plagued by sectarian messaging. His biography on the site said "Jews are satan's children" and his background picture was a radar gun reading "1488", a popular symbol of white supremacy.

For weeks, "Robert Bowers" was enraged by the efforts of the Jewish national group HIAS to organize Shabbat services for refugees, according to archival messages.

"HIAS likes to bring in invaders who would kill our people," the user wrote, hours before firing. "I can not sit down and watch my people get slaughtered – see your perspective, I'll go in there."

Trump on Saturday called the Pittsburgh shootout "pure evil" and "anti-Semitic act".

"It certainly sounds like an anti-Semitic crime," President Trump said Saturday afternoon. "It's something you did not think you could continue."

Earlier Saturday, Trump also suggested that armed security at the synagogue could have prevented the attack. He regularly suggested this after lethal shootings, even after large-scale mbadacres committed despite the presence of law enforcement officers.

Saturday's violence – the latest in a seemingly endless series of collective shootings in America – took place in a synagogue located in a leafy residential enclave near Carnegie Mellon University, the only one in the world. one of the largest Jewish majority neighborhoods in the United States. His "traditional, progressive and egalitarian" congregation was formed in 1864.

It is the "center of Jewish life on the morning of Shabbat," said Rabbi Aaron Bisno of the Rodef Shalom congregation, two blocks away.

It is unclear how many people were in the synagogue at the time of the shooting, which took place around the time the synagogues in the country receive regular services for the Sabbath holidays. According to an online calendar, a Shabbat service would have been scheduled for Saturday at 9:45.

The main sanctuary of the synagogue, a cavernous space with large stained glbad windows illustrating the history of creation, can accommodate up to 1,250 people, according to the Tree of Life website.

Police officers in Washington, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles all stated that they were increasing the number of patrols in synagogues and other places of worship as a result of the Pittsburgh attack, as a precaution.

The shootout comes during a wave of anti-Semitic activity in the United States, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League released earlier this year. From 2016 to 2017, the number of cases of harbadment, vandalism and anti-Semitic aggression increased by 57%, the biggest leap in a year since the start of ADL data tracking in the 1970s.

Ben Opie, 55, who lives on the other side of the street since Tree of Life, said his wife was volunteering around 11 am when police shouted to her to go home. Officers knocked on neighbors' doors and asked them to stay locked inside.

Two hours later, after leaving many police vehicles, Opie said he was still shaking.

"That's right," Opie said, pausing, her voice shaking. "Sorry, it shakes me up more than usual."

On Saturday afternoon, members of the synagogue were gathered in a bereavement center waiting to hear from friends and family members caught in the shooting.

"This is one of my biggest fears," said Chuck Diamond, Rabbi of Tree of Life for seven years. "When I led the congregation, I always had in mind that something like this would happen. It's a terrible thing to feel. "

Joel Achenbach, Devlin Barrett, Wesley Lowery, Abby Ohlheiser, Kristine Phillips, Mike Rosenwald and Katie Zezima contributed to this developing story.