‘I just want to kill Jews’: temple gunman

Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting leaves 11 dead, six wounded

PITTSBURGH — Tributes rolled in Sunday for the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre as authorities worked to piece together the background and movements of the suspected gunman, who authorities said expressed hatred of Jews as he opened fire with an AR-15 rifle and other weapons and later told police, “All these Jews need to die.”

Robert Gregory Bowers killed eight men and three women inside the Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday during worship services before a tactical police team tracked him down and shot him, authorities said in state and federal affidavits made public on Sunday.

Six people were injured in the attack, including four officers.

Officials released the names of the 11 who died, all of them middle-aged or elderly. The victims included intellectually disabled brothers and a husband and wife. The youngest was 54 and the oldest was 97.

“The loss is incalculable,” said Stephen Cohen, co-president of New Light Congregation, which rents space at Tree of Life.

Mayor Bill Peduto called it the “darkest day of Pittsburgh’s history.”

Bowers shot his victims with an AR-15 — the weapon used in many of the nation’s mass shootings — and three handguns, all of which he owned legally and had a licence to carry, according to a law enforcement official who wasn’t authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation, and spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity.

Little else was known about Bowers, who had no apparent criminal record but who is believed to have expressed virulently anti-Semitic views on social media. It appears he acted alone, authorities said.

His neighbour, Chris Hall, said he never heard or saw anything to indicate that Bowers harboured anti-Semitic views or posed a threat. Bowers kept to himself, he said.

“The most terrifying thing is just how normal he seemed,” Hall said. “I wish I knew what was going on inside his head. Maybe something could have been done. I don’t know.”

The victims included Melvin Wax, a retired accountant in his late 80s who was always one of the PITTSBURGH continues // A10