Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect likely acted alone

US - The suspected gunman who killed eleven worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the most deadly attack ever on the Jewish community in the United States likely acted alone, officials said yesterday.

The shooter stormed the building during a Saturday morning service, fatally shooting eleven mostly elderly people and wounding six others including four police officers, before he was arrested.

There was no indication that the suspect, 46-year-old Robert Bowers of Pittsburgh, was working with anyone else, US Attorney Scott Brady said at a news conference.

Bowers, who made statements about genocide and his desire to kill Jewish people during the rampage, will make an initial appearance before a judge on today afternoon, Brady said.

“This was an attack upon our neighbors and our friends and one that we felt very deeply”, Brady said.

The Tree of Life synagogue in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, a heavily Jewish area, was holding a Shabbat religious service when the gunman burst in.

The mass shooting prompted security alerts at houses of worship around the country and condemnation from politicians and religious leaders. It followed a spate of pipe bombs found mailed in recent days to prominent political figures, mostly Democrats including former US President Barack Obama, ahead of November 6 congressional elections.

“We’ll get through this darkest day of Pittsburgh history by working together”, the city’s mayor, Bill Peduto, told reporters.

Bowers had made many antiSemitic posts online, including one early on Saturday. In another, he slammed U.S. President Donald Trump for doing nothing to stop an ‘infestation’ of the United States by Jews.

A social media post by Bowers on Saturday morning said a Jewish refugee organization, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in”.

US Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat who is Jewish, said yesterday the country needs to combat a climate of hatred and division that he said Trump helped foster. “Honestly I think this president’s whole modus operandi is to divide us. He gets up in the morning with new and inventive ways to divide us”, Schiff said on CNN’s State of the Union.

(Reuters)