Police say suspect spoke of killing Jews
PITTSBURGH — Tributes rolled in Sunday to the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre as authorities worked to piece together the background and movements of the suspected gunman, who authorities said later told police, “All these Jews need to die.”
Robert Gregory Bowers entered an open door screaming anti-Semitic slurs, then 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. Five remained in the hospital Sunday, and two were listed in critical condition.
“They’re committing genocide to my people,” the suspect told a SWAT officer after being shot and captured, according to a federal criminal complaint. “I just want to kill Jews.”
Officials released the names of all 11 of the dead. The oldest was Rose Mallinger, a 97-year-old resident of the predominantly Jewish neighborhood. The youngest victims were brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, ages 59 and 54, respectively. Also killed
were Bernice Simon and her husband, Sylvan, both in their 80s; Joyce Fienberg, 75; Richard Gottfried, 65; Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Daniel Stein, 71; Melvin Wax, 88; and Irving Younger, 69.
“The loss is incalculable,” said Stephen Cohen, co-president of New Light Congregation, which rents space in the basement at Tree of Life.
Mayor Bill Peduto called it the “darkest day of Pittsburgh’s history.” Robert Jones, the FBI special agent in charge of the case, called it “the most horrific crime scene I’ve seen in 22 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Two other worshippers were wounded in the initial shooting, which lasted about 10 minutes before someone called 911, police said. Two police officers arrived at the synagogue within a minute of the call and encountered the gunman at the synagogue’s entrance.
“He had finished, and he was exiting the building,” Jones told reporters. “Had Bowers made it out of that facility, there is a strong possibility that additional violence would have occurred.”
Instead, authorities said, Bowers exchanged gunfire with the two officers, shooting one in the hand; the other was injured by shrapnel.
The gunman fled back inside the synagogue, and a small SWAT team assembled to pursue him and try to rescue the wounded inside.
Bowers shot two more officers — multiple times each — during a brief standoff on the building’s third floor, according to criminal complaints. Police said he yelled about Jews throughout.
The suspect was also shot several times before he surrendered inside the building. He remained in fair condition and in federal custody on Sunday.
Bowers used an AR-15 rifle and three handguns, all of which he owned legally and had a license to carry, according to a law enforcement official who wasn’t authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation, and spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity.
The gunman targeted a building that housed three separate congregations, all of which were conducting Sabbath services when the attack began just before 10 a.m. in the tree-lined residential neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, about 10 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh and the hub of the city’s Jewish community. The area is famous locally for being the real-life neighborhood of the late public-television host Fred Rogers.
Retired Tree of Life Rabbi Alvin Berkun, who knew nearly all of the victims, said Bowers penetrated all three areas of the building. The synagogue pays police officers to provide security on high holidays, but not at other times, he said.
“When that was over, there’s virtually no security,” he said. “We were lax in our vigilance.”
Cohen said leaders of New Light Congregation had participated in active-shooting drills, “and I think that’s what ultimately saved the people who were saved.”
President Donald Trump suggested Saturday that the synagogue should have had armed guards. Peduto, a Democrat, disputed that on Sunday.
“The approach we need to be looking at is how we take the guns — the common denominator of every mass shooting in America — out of the hands of those looking to express hatred through murder,” the mayor told reporters.
REMEMBERING VICTIMS
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center tweeted it mourned the loss of Rabinowitz, “one of the kindest physicians and human beings in our community.”
Dr. Kenneth Ciesielka, who had been friends with Rabinowitz for more than 30 years, called him “one of the finest people I’ve ever met.”
“His patients are going to miss him terribly,” Ciesielka said. His family is going to miss him terribly, and I am going to miss him.”
Friends remembered Wax, a retired accountant, as always one of the first to arrive at synagogue and among the last to leave.
“He and I used to, at the end of services, try to tell a joke or two to each other,” said Myron Snider, a fellow member of New Light Congregation. “Most of the time they were clean jokes. Most of the time. I won’t say all the time. But most of the time.”
The Rosenthal brothers were intellectually disabled and lived together near the synagogue.
“Cecil’s laugh was infectious. David was so kind and had such a gentle spirit. Together, they looked out for one another. They were inseparable,” said Chris Schopf, vice president of residential supports for Achieva, which helped the brothers live independently.
The Simons were always ready to help other people and the synagogue, longtime friend and neighbor Jo Stepaniak said, and “they always did it with a smile and always did it with graciousness.”
“Anything that they could do, and they did it as a team,” she said.
Fienberg had spent most of her career as a researcher looking at learning in the classroom and in museums.
Dr. Gaea Leinhardt, who was Fienberg’s research partner for decades, said she was devastated by the death of “a magnificent, generous, caring, and profoundly thoughtful human being.”
Stein was president of the Men’s Club at Tree of Life. His nephew, Steven Halle, told the Tribune-Review that his uncle “was always willing to help anybody.”
With his generous spirit and dry sense of humor, “he was somebody that everybody liked,” Halle said.
Gottfried, who ran a dental office with his wife and practice partner, often did charity work seeing patients who could not otherwise afford dental care. He was preparing to retire in the next few months.
He, along with Wax and Stein, “led the service, they maintained the Torah, they did what needed to be done with the rabbi to make services happen,” Cohen said.
A neighbor in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood on Sunday remembered Younger as “a really nice guy.”
Jonathan Voye told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Younger was personable and occasionally spoke with him about family or the weather.
Former Tree of Life Rabbi Chuck Diamond said that as soon as he heard about the deadly shooting at the synagogue, he worried about Mallinger. The shooting’s oldest victim had been a fixture at services for decades.
“I feel a part of me died in that building,” Diamond said.
Her daughter, Andrea Wedner, 61, was among the wounded, a family member said. She remains hospitalized.
HEARING TODAY
Little else was known Sunday 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 neighbor, Chris Hall, said he never heard or saw anything to indicate that Bowers harbored 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.”
Bowers is expected to have his first court hearing today. He faces 11 state counts of criminal homicide, six counts of aggravated assault and 13 counts of ethnic intimidation.
“This was the single most lethal and violent attack on the Jewish community in the history of the country,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive and national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “We’ve never had an attack of such depravity where so many people were killed.”
He was also charged in a 29-count federal criminal complaint that included counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death — a federal hate crime — and using a firearm to commit murder. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the charges could merit a death sentence, and the U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh said he’s seeking approval for the death penalty.
It wasn’t clear whether Bowers had an attorney to speak on his behalf. A message left with the federal public defender’s office in Pittsburgh wasn’t immediately returned.
Vigils for the victims were planned in Pittsburgh, Washington and elsewhere, while the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns observed a moment of silence at Heinz Field on Sunday.
The mass shooting drew condemnation and expressions of sympathy around the world.
Pope Francis led prayers for Pittsburgh in St. Peter’s Square.
“In reality, all of us are wounded by this inhuman act of violence,” he said. He prayed for God “to help us to extinguish the flames of hatred that develop in our societies, reinforcing the sense of humanity, respect for life and civil and moral values.”
Information for this article was contributed by Mark Scolforo, Claudia Lauer, Allen G. Breed, Maryclaire Dale, Michael Balsamo, Jennifer Peltz and Michael Rubinkam of The Associated Press; and by Avi Selk, Mark Berman, Joel Achenbach, Kellie B. Gormly, Kyle Swenson, Amy B Wang, Deanna Paul, Devlin Barrett, Wesley Lowery, Abby Ohlheiser, Kristine Phillips, Mike Rosenwald and Katie Zezima of The Washington Post.