A person pauses
Suspect called a danger to the community
PITTSBURGH – The long-haul trucker accused of shooting and killing 11 worshipers in a hate-driven rampage at a local synagogue made a brief court appearance in a wheelchair Monday and was ordered back for a preliminary hearing Thursday.
Robert Bowers, 46, was assigned a court-appointed lawyer and waived a reading of the charges he faces. He was being held without bail for the attack the Anti-Defamation League called the deadliest against the Jewish community in U.S. history.
Bowers, who was wounded in a gunfight with police during Saturday’s carnage at Tree of Life Synagogue, was released from a local hospital hours before the hearing.
Scott Brady, the U.S. attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania, said after the hearing that the case would be presented to a federal grand jury within 30 days.
In court documents filed just before the hearing, prosecutors described Bowers as a danger to the community. Prosecutors wanted Bowers held without bail, asserting that “no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure” his appearance at future court hearings.
Brady said earlier that he has begun the process of gaining the approval of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to pursue a death penalty case against Bowers.
President Donald Trump has expressed support for Brady’s position, saying that “when people do this, they should get the death penalty. And they shouldn’t have to wait years and years.”
The White House announced that Trump and first lady Melania Trump would visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday “to express the support of the American people and to grieve with the Pittsburgh community.”
Brady said Bowers’ apartment in Baldwin, about 10 miles south of the Squirrel Hill neighborhood where the shooting took place, and his vehicle were being searched.
Jon Pushinsky, 64, a member of the Tree of Life Synagogue, came to watch the court proceedings, saying he wanted to bear witness. He was struck by Bowers’ everyday appearance.
“It was not the face of villainy that I thought we’d see,” he said.
Jean Clickner, another Tree of Life member in court to get a glimpse of Bowers, said she doesn’t support prosecutors’ push for the death pen-
“It was not the face of villainy that I thought we’d see.”
alty. She said she is focused on helping heal the injured and grieving.
Pushinsky and Clickner were members of Dor Hadash Congregation, one of those within the Tree of Life Synagogue.
After the hearing, Brady read a statement to reporters but took no questions. He promised to present a preliminary case at the next hearing Thursday at 10 a.m.
“At that time, we will have the opportunity to present evidence demonstrating that Robert Bowers murdered 11 people who were exercising their religious beliefs, and that he shot or injured six others, four of whom were police officers responding to the shooting.”
“Our investigation of these hate crimes continues,” he said.
Authorities say Bowers, armed with a semiautomatic rifle and three Glock .357 handguns, burst into the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue on Saturday, shouting anti-Semitic epithets and opening fire on the congregants. Bowers was wounded in a shootout with police that left four officers injured, police say.
Judah Samet, 80, said he arrived a few minutes late for the 9:45 a.m. service Saturday – and his tardiness probably saved his life.
Samet, who survived 10 months at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during World War II before serving in the Israeli Army, pulled into the parking lot and was told the rampage was underway.
Samet said the shooter came outside when Bowers briefly exited the synagogue.
“The bullets were whizzing by me” until Bowers went back inside, Samet said. “He kept killing. I was lucky.”
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers said he had just started services when he heard the gunfire.
He told eight congregants to duck behind the thick oak pews and remain silent while he hustled some near the front out of the room.
The shooting grew louder and he could not make his way back, he said. He raced to a safe space in the choir loft while calling police.
Twenty minutes later, he was extricated by SWAT officers, he said. One of the congregants left behind was shot but survived, he said.
“The other seven of my congregants were gunned down in my sanctuary,” Myers told CNN. “There was nothing I could do . ... I wish I could have done more.”
Bowers is charged with 29 criminal counts, including 11 federal hate-crime charges. Another 11 counts of using a firearm to kill carry a maximum penalty of death.
All 11 victims died from rifle wounds, and several suffered head wounds, the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office said.
The victims included middle-age brothers, an elderly husband and wife and a grandmother nearing 100.
Barton Schachter recalled meeting one of the victims in the late ’80s, when
“Our beautiful utopia has been damaged.” David Haber
the two coached Little League together. Daniel Stein, Schachter said, loved baseball. He had an enormous smile.
Recently, a new love had come into his life. Within the last year, the 71year-old member of the Tree of Life congregation had his first grandchild, Schachter said.
Stein’s smile spread across his face when he spoke of the grandchild.
“He didn’t need to use a lot of words because he generated that enormous smile when he was talking about his kids, his grandchild, his synagogue,” Schachter said.
Stein’s congregation, known as New Light, had only recently moved in with Tree of Life, Schachter said.
Members had grown out of their former synagogue a few blocks away and were welcomed warmly about a year ago, sharing space with Jews from two different groups.
Their safe space of prayer and reflection abruptly turned into the scene of a bloodbath when Bowers allegedly burst in before 10 a.m. Saturday and started gunning down the congregants.
David Haber, at his home overlooking Murray Avenue, called his wife when he noticed the street swarming with first responders.
After he opened the front door, police officers yelled to get back inside.
“We just watched it happen. We stood at our door dumbfounded,” Pam Haber said. “It was like a war zone.”
Their front yard and street soon became the center of the police staging area. They soon got a text that told them the shooting was at Tree of Life, their own synagogue.
“Our beautiful utopia has been damaged,” David Haber said, adding he feels “somewhat violated.”
The first burials have been scheduled for Tuesday, those close to the victims said. Other families were waiting for the investigation to continue before they could quickly bury their loved ones as required by Jewish tradition.