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PITTSBURGH – The man accused of killing 11 worshipers in a hate attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue appeared in court for the first time on Monday.
Robert Bowers appeared before trial judge Robert C. Mitchell in downtown Pittsburgh City Court, in a wheelchair, handcuffed, wearing a blue sweatshirt and trousers of gray jogging, surrounded by marshals of the United States. The judge made a list of the 29 charges against him and asked him if he understood them. "Yes," he replied.
The charges included obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs – a hate crime that could lead to the death penalty, which the federal authorities said Sunday they intend to prosecute. He is also facing charges from the state.
Mr. Bowers was accompanied by two public defenders who represented him and refused to ask the judge to read the entire criminal complaint and the penalties incurred in the event of conviction. He was sentenced to bail without bail and his next hearing was scheduled for Thursday.
Two members of Dor Hadash, one of the congregations at Tree of Life who lost a member on Saturday, sat in the front row of the audience. "It was not the face of nastiness, I thought I would see it," said Jon Pushinksy.
[Ensavoirplussur[Readmoreabout[Ensavoirplussur[Readmoreaboutthe shooting suspect, who has frequently republished antisemitic content on social media.]
Earlier on Monday, two Jewish groups called on President Trump to give up what they described as inflammatory rhetoric that seemed to encourage the most radical fringes of American society.
Saturday's attack on the Tree of Life synagogue ended when the gunman, identified by the authorities as Robert Bowers, surrendered to the police when he was wounded and crawling on his knees. He "wanted all Jews to die," he told a SWAT officer at the time, according to the authorities, because the Jews "were committing genocide against his people."
The victims of the attack, beloved members of one of the country's vital Jewish communities, were mostly between 70 and 80 years old.
Mr. Trump, who called for unity at a rally on the day of the shooting and then ordered flags to fly under a half-baton, said he would go to Pittsburgh. But the Pittsburgh chapter of the progressive Jewish group Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, focused on social justice in the United States, said in a open letter to Mr. Trump that he was "not welcome to Pittsburgh until you completely denounced white nationalism".
The letter, which had 26,000 signatures on Monday morning, said Trump's language gave confidence to white nationalists.
"In the last three years, your words and your politics have encouraged a growing white nationalist movement," said the letter. "You yourself have qualified the killer for evil, but the violence of yesterday is the direct climax of your influence."
The chairman of the board of directors of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action is Alexander Soros. He is the son of George Soros, billionaire philanthropist and leading donor of Democratic candidates, Jewish and survivor of the Nazi occupation of Hungary.
Mr. Soros is quoted time and time again in the right-wing conspiracy theories and was targeted in the wave of homemade bombs in the mail last week. Mr. Trump has claims Mr. Soros paid for "rude elevator screamers" to protest Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh of the Supreme Court, and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida Republican asked on Twitter if Mr. Soros is behind the caravan of migrants.
Another progressive Jewish group, IfNotNow, invited the Americans to a national appeal this week, saying the attack in Pittsburgh was "not an isolated incident" and that now, a week before the election of mid-term, "it's time to act".
But other members of the Jewish community in Pittsburgh said they would be happy to receive Mr. Trump's visit, including Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life synagogue.
"The President of the United States is always welcome," Rabbi Myers told CNN on Monday. "I am a citizen. He is my president. He is certainly welcome. "
Mr. Bowers, 46, with no criminal record and social media, was accused of anti-Semitic killings. He is accused of perpetrating a massacre in the neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, the heart of Jewish life in Pittsburgh. about a quarter of Jewish households in the city.
On Monday, survivors continued to contend with the horror of what had happened. Until two months ago, Rabbi Myers rarely wore his cell phone with him on the Sabbath, the holiest day of the week during which some Jews avoid technology and electronics. But in August, a security expert told him that "it was a different world" and that he had to have his phone nearby.
Because of this training, the Rabbi was the first person to call the police on Saturday. He remained on the phone for 20 minutes until SWAT evacuated him.
"I've learned a number of important things with him," Rabbi Myers said of security training in August, in an interview with ABC on Monday on "Good Morning America." "He said: 'Rabbi, the world is different and you have to wear it. "I am so grateful for his presence and learn from me."
Rabbi Myers said that about five minutes after the start of the Saturday ceremony, at 9:45, he had heard a loud noise in the lobby of the lower floor. It looked like a coat rack had fallen, he remembered. But then another detonation sounds.
"It was obvious to me," he said, "that it was not the sound of a piece of metal falling off." He added, "It was a shot quick".
Rabbi Myers said that a dozen people were in the shrine when the gunfire started and he shouted for everyone to throw himself to the ground and remain quiet. He started evacuating the faithful, starting with a handful of people in front of the sanctuary. He made them safe. There were still eight people in the room, all at the back, but it was too late to help them, he said.
The shots were getting stronger and stronger. The shooter approached the shrine.
"There was no way for me to come back," he said.
Seven of the eight people were killed, he said. The person who survived, a woman, was hurt but should live.
"I live with that, the sounds that are burned in my brain for the rest of my life," Rabbi Myers told CNN. "I have a congregation to take care of. I have families who need me. I have funerals to plan.
On Sunday night, the Justice Department announced that US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Scott Brady, had initiated the approval process to obtain the death penalty against Mr. Bowers . The final decision was made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
All capital cases go through the Department of Justice's death penalty section, set up in 1998 to help the Attorney General decide when to use the death penalty.
The half-dozen prosecutors in the section worked with prosecutors in the United States to prosecute cases such as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombers, and Dylann S. Roof, who murdered nine people in an African American church in South Carolina.
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