USA TODAY
Synagogue shooting sends shockwaves across the nation Suspected gunman: ‘I just want to kill Jews’
“We have been knocked down before, but we have always been able to stand back up because we work together.” Mayor Bill Peduto
The man accused of killing 11 people in a shooting rampage at a Pittsburgh synagogue was armed with an arsenal of weapons and a virulent hatred for the unsuspecting targets who had gathered to worship in the heart of the local Jewish community.
Court documents provide glimpses of suspect Robert Bowers and the 20 minutes of bloodshed Saturday at the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in the city’s affluent Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
Mayor Bill Peduto, at a news conference Sunday, promised that the city would emerge stronger from its “darkest day.”
“We are a resilient city,” Peduto said. “We have been knocked down before, but we have always been able to stand back up because we work together.”
Bowers, 46, burst into the synagogue, shouting anti-Semitic epithets as he opened fire on the congregants. His extensive armaments included a Colt AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and three Glock .357 handguns.
The gunshots pierced Saturday morning quiet in the neighborhood on the city’s east side. Marcy Pepper, a member of the synagogue until this year, told USA TODAY she heard the gunshots from her home.
“How do you walk in there again, and walk by that spot?” Pepper said.
E. Joseph Charney, a member of the
synagogue since 1955, was in the synagogue waiting for the morning service when he heard a loud noise downstairs. A man entered the doorway, then Charney heard gunshots.
“I looked up and there were all these dead bodies,” Charny, 90, told The Washington Post. “I wasn’t in the mood to stay there.”
Charney fled, hiding with others in a storage room full of boxes. He slipped out of the synagogue to safety.
“At first I felt numb, then thankful,” he told the Post.
Bowers shot and killed 11 worshippers and wounded two others before being confronted by police, U.S. Attorney Scott Brady said. Four officers were injured, including three shot by Bowers, he said.
The criminal complaint says Bowers made statements “evincing an animus towards people of the Jewish faith.” Bowers told one law enforcement officer, in substance, that “they’re committing genocide to my people. I just want to kill Jews,” according to the complaint.
Federal authorities have said that police engaged the suspect as he attempted to flee the synagogue, driving Bowers back inside. The suspected gunman surrendered after he was wounded.
“The officers prevented additional loss of life,” Special Agent Bob Jones said.
Bowers had been posting anti-Semitic rants on social media. Minutes before entering the building, he apparently posted to Gab, a fringe website favored by white nationalists.
“I can’t sit by an watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics. I’m going in,” the post said.
Bowers was charged with 29 criminal counts, including 11 federal hate-crime charges.
Eleven counts of using a firearm to kill carry a maximum penalty of death, though no decision had been made about the death penalty would be sought. He is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate Monday.
The Anti-Defamation League called Saturday’s attack the deadliest against the Jewish community in U.S. history. The attack prompted increased security, including a police presence, at synagogues across the nation. Peduto, however, brushed off comments from President Donald Trump that armed guards at the Tree of Life would have prevented the carnage.
“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 who are looking to express hatred through murder,” Peduto said.
The names of the victims, who ranged in age from 54 to 97, were released Sunday: Joyce Fienberg, 75, Richard Gottfried, 65, Rose Mallinger, 97, Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, brothers Cecil Rosenthal, 59, and David Rosenthal, 54; Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband Sylvan Simon, 86, Daniel Stein, 71, Melvin Wax, 88, and Irving Younger, 69.