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The gray clouds hang little and the morning rain shifts from fog to drizzle and back – not out of the ordinary Saturday fall in Pittsburgh. Some people are getting ready for an afternoon Pitt football game at Heinz Field. Many shop or go to weekend appointments.
A father and his daughter are walking in a sporting goods store in McCandless Crossing, in the North Hills. The aisles at a nearby Joe shopkeeper are becoming more and more crowded as people get up early to do their shopping. It's hard to find parking in the Strip District at 9:30 am, although the south side is mostly sleeping after a festive Friday night.
In the East End, Squirrel Hill wakes up and starts buzzing with activity. The cafes are buzzing. People walk, some with their dogs. Many in the Jewish center of the city come to service on Saturday Shabbat – or plan to organize others.
Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers arrives at Tree of Life, a congregation he has been leading for just over a year. Cecil and David Rosenthal welcomed him.
It would not be a typical Saturday at the Wilkins Avenue Synagogue without "The Boys" – as the brothers affectionately call it. David Rosenthal, 54, meticulously arranges prayer books and shawls for services. Cecil Rosenthal, five years older and the most outgoing of the two, serves as a keeper.
For decades, brothers – affected by cognitive difficulties, but never slowed – have been unavoidable accessories in their neighborhood and synagogue, where they help before, during and after services.
"God broke the mold that produced Cecil and David," Myers will say later.
The rabbi continues, greeting other regulars – such as Joyce Fienberg and Irv Younger – before getting ready for his morning service.
People leave flowers and take a moment to remember the 11 people who were killed in the shooting at the Tree of Life congregation on Monday, October 28, 2018. Photo by Nate Smallwood Tribune-Review.
On Saturday, the concrete building with its distinctive stained glass windows hosts three simultaneous services for three congregations.
The Sabbath service for Tree of Life, a 154-year-old congregation in Pittsburgh, begins at 9:45 am – the same time the New Light Congregation begins service downstairs.
A Torah study service for Dor Hadash usually begins 15 minutes later.
On this Saturday, October 27, 2018, this service will never be put into service.
Broken serenity
Stephen Weiss was supposed to be out of town to visit a family member, but illness interrupted the trip. At the last minute, he agrees to join a service at Tree of Life, of which he has been a member for 29 years. (1)
Barry Werber prefers New Light services on Friday nights or Sundays. Saturday is the yahrzeit, or anniversary of the death of his mother. He wears his wedding ring on the same finger as his. (2)
When he enters the synagogue, Werber, of Stanton Heights, passes by a table topped with wine glasses and a bottle of whiskey, presumably that of a newborn baby boy. (3)
New Rabbi Jonathan Perlman is downstairs with Melvin Wax and Caroline Black. His brother Richard Gottfried and his colleague Daniel Stein are in the kitchen preparing food. (3)
Wax, 88, starts the service. Werber followed in his prayer book.
Weiss is sitting in the last row of the Chapel of the Tree of Life on the main floor.
E. Joseph Charny, a retired 90-year-old psychiatrist from Squirrel Hill, and a woman reading the scriptures for service stand next to Rabbi Myers. (3)
People respond at the scene of a mass shooting in a synagogue at Squirrel Hill on October 27, 2018. Photo Tribune-Review by Nate Smallwood.
Around the same time, Deane Root and his wife, Rabbi Doris Dyen, leave the house to drive to Shady Avenue, heading for Tree of Life. For a decade, the couple spent Saturday mornings singing and discussing Jewish texts with other members of Dor Hadash, a small congregation that rents premises in the synagogue.
For Root, the Sabbath is a day of "gathering for reflection, prayer, spiritual elevation and the study of three millennia of texts and their relevance to our lives today." hui ".
This Sabbath, however, would prove anything but edifying.
With the help of the @ onedingo handle, a person known for his anti-Jewish feelings expresses himself on social media at 9:49 am "I can not sit and watch my people get slaughtered" , indicates the message. "Crazy your optics, I'm going in."
Behind the station is Robert Bowers, a truck driver from Baldwin Township with no criminal record. He gets out of his car and enters Tree of Life with a Colt AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and three .357 Glock handguns, officials said.
It's about 9:50 am – the same time Root and Dyen arrive at the parking lot.
They immediately hear a loud noise, like the boom of earthmovers – which is not unusual for Squirrel Hill, even if it's not so normal on a Saturday morning.
Root and his wife, both trained in music, note the tempo of the five or six separate but somewhat muffled, but strong, splinters. Yet, they can not tell the cause or direction from where it comes from.
Inside, Weiss and other people from the Tree of Life service hear it too, a loud noise coming from the hall direction. Two people run to check – leaving 10 people in the service, the minimum necessary to continue.
Myers thinks that an older member of one of the congregations accidentally spilled a metal coat rack. From the back of the sanctuary, he observed three men from Dor Hadash running down the stairs. (4)
Werber hears the same sound and thinks someone hit the table with glasses and whiskey. He opens the door to look. The veteran of the air force knows that they have problems.
A body rests on the steps.
Root and Dyen head for the main entrance. Splinters of glass cover the sidewalk. The root notices holes in a piece of glass, thinking that this must be the work of vandals.
"Wait a minute, these holes are too big for BBs," he says quickly.
The couple hear again a staccato of the same loud and reverberant sounds.
"Run," Root turns and shouts at his wife.
"We have an active shooter"
Weiss now recognizes the sound as a shooting.
A burst becomes two, three, more than 10.
Although he has never heard of a firearm, Myers is also certain of what it is. (4)
He orders his congregation to come down. "Be silent, do not say a word, do not move. (5)
Myers catches three people close to him and pushes them to an exit or closet to hide. The rabbi returns to try to trap the people behind old thick oak benches in the back. But the shots get stronger and stronger as the shooter gets closer. Myers has to leave. (4)
Weiss fears the resounding gunshots, but his training began after the active shooter drills he had undergone a year earlier in the synagogue.
He and others go behind the chapel. Some try to see if other congregations in the building are aware of what is happening. Weiss leaves the neighboring sanctuary without ever seeing the gunman.
Charny watches a man with a "big gun" enter the room and shoot four people. "Get out of here or die," shouts his mind. He and the reader take refuge on the third floor and hide. (3)
Myers rushes to the back of the sanctuary, but thinks about trying to get out of the building. The way out could put him in the shooter's line of sight, he thought. (5)
He dials 911 and rushes into the attic of the choir to find a place to hide. (4) (5)
"We have an active shooter in the building," the rabbi quickly told, breathless, to the person at the other end of the call.
Dispatch, 9:54: '5898 Wilkins Ave. The complainant says that they have an active shooter in the building. A second call indicates that they are attacked. They have hunting rifles. There are several gunshots in the hall, probably between 20 and 30 shots. "
At 9:55 am, Jason Lando, Area 5 Police Commander, claims to be in the vicinity of Forbes Avenue and Wightman Street, less than one mile from Tree of Life.
Officers Daniel Mead and Michael Midga, from Zone 4 Police Station two blocks away, are also on their way.
Myers listens to the shooter below executing his followers.
"My husband has been touched," shouts Bernice Simon. (5)
The shooter fires again.
Bernice, 84, and Sylvan Simon, 86, die in the synagogue where they got married. The Wilkinsburg couple married at a candlelight ceremony at Tree of Life in December 1956.
Myers slips into a nearby bathroom. The door has no lock, so he keeps it closed and begs the gunman not to find it. (5)
It provides whispered updates to 911 for nearly an hour.
Myers plans to make a video recording for his wife. It is not certain to come out alive. (5)
Dispatch: "… The members of the synagogue took refuge in different parts of the building and took shelter. … & # 39;
Acknowledging that there is an armed man in the building, Rabbi Perlman deposits Werber, Mel Wax and Caroline Black at the back of the chapel and through the swinging doors of a storage room. The rabbi continues with another outing for help. (3)
Werber, Wax and Black remain in the dark.
After a few moments, there is a pause in the shot. Wax, who wears hearing aids but still can not hear well, pushes the door. The shooter fired three shots, striking Wax and knocking him back to the floor of the storage room. (3)
Black crouches on the floor near the door. Werber presses his body against the wall. (7)
The shooter passes the door. A ray of light pierces the darkness. He spans Wax's body and looks around briefly. Werber notes the shooter's jacket, shirt and pants. He also sees the rifle and fears he will be next. It's the scariest moment of his 76 years of life. (2)
Seeing neither one nor the other in the dark room, the shooter backs down on Wax and goes away.
"Thank you, God," said Werber.
He checks the pulse of Wax. There is none, says Werber on 911 on his mobile phone. He says he saw the gunman but did not see them in the dark. A call center at the county emergency center keeps him on line. She assures Werber that help is on the way.
"Go back to your car"
Root and Dyen run to their car, where he calls 911. His first attempt fails. His second pass. It's 9:56
Get out of there and do not let anyone in, said an emergency dispatcher.
The other members of their congregation begin arriving for their 10 o'clock service.
"Get in your car and go," Root and Dyen shout out the window. "There is an active shooter."
Seymour "Sy" Drescher, a retired university professor, arrives on the ground and gets out.
"Sy, get in your car," screams Root.
Drescher immediately returns to his car.
A member of the SWAT team heads to the scene of a mass shooting in a synagogue at Squirrel Hill on October 27, 2018. Photo of Tribune-Review by Nate Smallwood.
Police shouted at the scene. Mead and Midga are two of the first to arrive.
Root and his wife go to the side of Shady Avenue of the synagogue, feeling the need to stay close and see what was happening. He sobs, knowing the people inside.
This includes Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, a long-time family physician; and Daniel Leger, a nurse and chaplain of the UPMC; and another member – three men who always arrived first to settle in and then help Dor Hadash's services.
The couple watch guard Augie Siriano leave the synagogue by an emergency exit from Shady Avenue. He is in shock, cold and frightened in the rain without a coat. But he is unhurt.
"If you have a vehicle, get out of here," orders Root and other people in the area.
Police: "Nobody goes near Wilkins Avenue because we can get shot."
Wearing a ballistic protection vest and armed with his handgun, Mead, 55, runs to the front of Tree of Life – where he meets the shooter while he tries to leave the synagogue.
A radio officer at 9:58: "We are under fire, we are under fire. He has an automatic weapon. He shoots us from the synagogue. "
A brief armed battle ensues. Mead is touched in the left hand.
A burst of broken glass or a ball grazes Smidga, 39, who grew up near Ligonier. A doctor on the scene treats the wound in his right ear.
At 9:59, Lando returns to the radio. "Every unit available in the city must arrive here now. All the units occupy a perimeter, we fire with the AK-47 from the front of the synagogue. "
The injured police are hiding behind their vehicle near the intersection of Shady and Wilkins Avenues. Someone calls SWAT teams from cities and counties.
Lando launches at 10 o'clock: "We are under fire. He fires at the front of the building with an automatic weapon.
Police set up an Incident Command Zone on Murray Avenue between Solway and Wilkins Streets. Officers surround the building. The operators of the SWAT team arrive from all directions.
His SUV is parked near Wilkins and Negley Avenue. He takes out his green tactical gear and dresses on the sidewalk, then runs to the synagogue holding a semi-automatic rifle.
Several police cars from the Pittsburgh Police and officers in patrol uniform are scattered along Wilkins Avenue towards Tree of Life. No resident can be seen outside. The street is quiet, apart from the ambulance and the police sirens.
A group of students from the Taylor Allderdice High School who organized the vigil at the start of the event at the corner of Murray Ave and Forbes Ave at Squirrel Hill on October 27, 2018. Photo Tribune-Review by Nate Smallwood .
SWAT is getting ready to enter the building. Two teams of 10 men say they are ready.
"We received an officer fired back, three shots. Maybe he hit the actor, copy, "announces a dispatcher around 10:20.
A few minutes later, a report was broadcast that the shooter wore "a green vest or a green jacket, he had a weapon slung around his neck." That's all we know, "said an officer.
At 10:29, the SWAT teams are at the entrance, ready to enter.
The agents immediately ask for help to evacuate the people inside.
"We have an exhausted magazine, which looks like an AK, a very powerful central corridor," says a SWAT operator.
A senior couple is found alive, hidden in a small antechamber near the front. SWAT moves them out of the building.
At 10:36 am, a SWAT operator reports having found four bodies in the atrium. A woman wounded by a bullet is found bent over one of the bodies. (6)
"I have one alive," an officer said.
Andrea Wedner, 61, is the only woman known to have survived a gunshot wound during the attack. His mother, Rose Mallinger, 97, is dead.
A survivor provides the police with a more detailed description of the gunman: "He is a heavily clad white man wearing a coat. He is not shaven, "an officer reports.
At 10:40 am, officers find more victims.
"I have four other victims, four victims, an atrium on the second floor of the lobby," said a SWAT radio operator. "Total eight down. One saved at this moment. "
The SWAT operators pass the first floor but still have not found the shooter. The search moves to the basement, where Werber and Black stay in the dark storage closet.
The door opens and the light turns on again. A SWAT member is there to lead them to safety. (5)
It is 10:43 am Werber has been on the phone with 911 for 44 minutes.
"We have cases of rifle in the blood," said a SWAT member in the basement.
Still without any sign of the shooter, the search moves to the third floor.
SWAT eventually finds Myers and takes him out of the building. A white and blue prayer shawl, still around his neck, passes behind him as he runs across the street. (4)
"Shots of fire, shots"
At 10:54, the carnage continues.
"Contact, contact, shots, gunshots," shouts someone on the radio. Loud noises are heard in the background. Someone screams.
The SWAT members finally meet the shooter, who is barricaded on the third floor. He opens fire.
SWAT operator Timothy Matson had taken seven bullets during the shooting.
A fellow operator pulls him out of the room and another takes off his armor and helmet before they both wear it down. Within 20 seconds after a bullet, a medical specialist in emergency medicine strives to save his life. (6)
"Gunshots, give me additional resources – additional resources on the third floor."
Another voice is heard on the radio: "We have a barricaded guy who is actively pulling on the SWAT operators. There is a stroke of the operator. I have an operator shot at that time. "
Anthony Burke, SWAT operator, was shot in the arm.
And then, calm.
Five seconds, 10 seconds. 30 seconds, one minute. There is static – someone commits his radio but does not speak.
Finally, someone speaks.
"We have eyes on the door. We have a hit operator, high in the arm, we have a tourniquet. That's all I have for now. Shots were still fired when I walked out of the room, I think he's still alive. "
At 11 o'clock, it starts again.
"Several shots, several shots."
A longer, more tense silence, then: "I need an infusion bag."
Within minutes, the SWAT operators began to communicate with the shooter.
"We gave him the order to crawl, he has not done it yet," said one.
Robert Bowers gives his name and date of birth. His surrender is in progress.
At 11:08, Bowers delivers his weapons and crawls on the floor to the police. He is injured and bleeding.
"The suspect is talking about" All these Jews must die, "said a SWAT radio operator.
It is 11:13, Bowers is in custody.
Mayor Bill Peduto would soon call these 83 minutes of terror to Tree of Life, the lost eleven souls, six wounded and a city to forever change the "darkest day" in Pittsburgh history.
The elements of the Tribune-Review reports appear without a quote. Other articles and video interviews cited: (1) NBC News; (2) CBS Evening News; (3) the New York Times; (4) CNN; (5) show of today; (6) ABC World News tonight; (7) Associated Press
Jason Cato is a news editor Tribune-Review. You can contact him at 724-850-1289 or [email protected].
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