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PITTSBURGH – Armed with an AR-15 type assault rifle and at least three handguns, a man shouting anti-Semitic insults opened fire in a crowded Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday, killing at least 11 people and injuring four policemen and two others, the authorities said.
In an outburst described as one of the deadliest against the Jewish community in the United States, the assailant broke into the congregation of Tree of Life, where worshipers had gathered in rooms separated to celebrate their faith and blindly fired on the crowd, breaking what had 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, Mr. Bowers exchanged shots with police officers before retreating to the interior and barricading himself in a room on the third floor. He finally surrendered.
Mr. Bowers, aged 46, was shot and wounded, although the authorities indicated that it was unclear whether these injuries were self-inflicted or if the police had shot him or her. . He was in a stable state Saturday at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Authorities announced on Saturday that Bowers, without a criminal record, would be charged with several federal hate crimes.
Although a ceremony marking the birth of a child was among the ceremonies held on Saturday, no child was among the victims, said law enforcement officials. Among the injured was a 70-year-old man who was shot in the chest and a 51-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 Saturday morning attack hit 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 an upsurge of rhetoric and rhetoric. crimes inspired by hate across America. It also occurred following the arrest on Friday morning of a man who, according to authorities, reportedly sent more than a dozen homemade bombs to Mr Trump's critics, 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 of Pennsylvania 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 massacre exacerbated the feeling of national malaise at the increasingly hostile political rhetoric. Critics of President Trump argued that he was partly responsible for recent acts of violence because he had attracted the attention of nationalism on Twitter and at his rallies, accusations that Mr. Trump had denied.
On Saturday's attack, Trump, speaking to reporters at the Andrews Joint Base, said, "It's a terrible and terrible thing that hate is happening in our country and around the world, and you have to do something. "
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