‘I’m going in,’ he said before slays
Susp raged against Jews on social media
The Pittsburgh man suspected of slaughtering 11 people at a synagogue Saturday appeared to announce his evil intentions online.
“Screw your optics, I’m going in,” Robert Bowers is believed to have posted on the social media site Gab just hours before his deadly rampage at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s predominantly Jewish Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
An archived version of what appears to be Bowers’ Gab page shows that he regularly posted and shared offensive and derogatory anti-Semitic memes. “Jews are the children of Satan,” was written under his profile picture.
On Saturday, the 46-year-old railed against the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees. The group held events in the Pittsburgh area last week.
“HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people,” Bowers wrote. “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”
The group issued a statement expressing solidarity with the Jewish community in Pittsburgh.
“There are no words to express how devastated we are by the events in Pittsburgh this morning. This loss is our loss, and our thoughts are with Tree of Life Congregation, our local partner Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh, the city of Pittsburgh and all those affected by this senseless act of violence,” the aid society said in a statement Saturday. “As we try to process this horrifying tragedy, we pray that the American Jewish community and the country can find healing.”
Bowers also posted several rants about how he believed President Trump was being controlled by Jews and pictures of several handguns, according to an archived version of his old Gab account shared online.
The conspiracy-loving anti-Semite criticized Trump for not being a true “nationalist.”
“Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist. There is no #MAGA as long as there is a k--e infestation,” he posted.
He regularly reposted neo-Nazi content and openly discussed the infamous QAnon conspiracy theory.
“#Qanon is here to get patriots that were against martial law in the 90’s to be the ones begging for it now to drain muh swamp,” he wrote.
Bowers social media activity was scoured for clues to possible motives a day after a Trump-loving former stripper was arrested in Florida for allegedly sending more than a dozen explosive devices to Democrats, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and George Soros. Suspected pipe bomb mailer Cesar Sayoc maintained several Facebook and Twitter feeds full of conspiracy theories and memes.
Gab, often accused of being a social media platform for right-wing extremists and the altright, condemned the shooting and said they backed up user data from Bowers’ account before taking it offline and contacting the FBI.
“Shortly after the attack, Gab was alerted to a user profile of the alleged Tree of Life Synagogue shooter. The account was verified and matched the name of the alleged shooter’s name, which was mentioned on police scanners,” the company said in a statement. “This person also had accounts on other social networks.
Gab took swift and proactive action to contact law enforcement immediately,” they added.