Anti-Semite kills 11 in attack
Six also injured as gunman opens fire in Pittsburgh synagogue
A man suspected of bursting into a Pittsburgh synagogue during a baby-naming ceremony and gunning down 11 people, has been charged with murder, in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in recent US history.
The suspect – identified as 46year-old Robert Bowers – reportedly yelled “All Jews must die” as he sprayed bullets into the Tree of Life synagogue duTwo Sabbath services on Saturday, before exchanging fire with police, in an attack that also wounded six people.
He was taken into custody and transferred to hospital before being charged by US prosecutors over the bloodshed, including with 11 counts of using a firearm to commit murder and 11 counts of obstructing the exercise of religion resulting in death.
Authorities said Bowers was armed with an assault rifle and at least three handguns when he opened fire shortly before 10am on Saturday.
President Donald Trump denounced “a wicked act of mass murder,” while his daughter Ivanka, a convert to Judaism, declared: “America is stronger than the acts of a depraved bigot and anti-Semite”.
“This evil anti-Semitic attack is an assault on all of us,” Trump told supporters at an election rally in Illinois, where he drew loud cheers as he vowed to fully enforce the death penalty for such crimes.
Trump said he would soon travel to Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, where hundreds held a candlelit vigil on Saturday.
Trump ordered all flags at the White House and at public grounds, military posts and naval stations to be flown at half-staff on October 31 as a mark of “solemn respect” for the victims.
Stephen Weiss, a 60-year-old member of the congregation, described hearing dozens of shots coming from the synagogue’s front lobby.
“We had services going on in the chapel when we heard a loud noise,” he told reporters. “I recognised it as gunshots.” No children were among the casualties. The Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights group which has tracked antiSemitism in the United States since the 1970s, said it believed the Pittsburgh shooting to be the deadliest such attack in US history.
Bowers, who the FBI said was not previously known to law enforcement, appeared to be the author of a rash of antiSemitic online posts, notably on the Gab.com website, where conspiracy theories are common.