Kasich orders flags lowered after synagogue shooting

COLUMBUS >> Ohio Gov. John Kasich has ordered flags lowered to half-staff following a gunman’s attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11 people.

The governor’s announcement came after Saturday’s shooting at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood that also injured six people, including four police officers.

Kasich says “Our hearts are heavy for the victims of today’s hate-filled attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, for their families and for all who have been affected.”

The governor ordered all flags lowered at public buildings and grounds in the state to honor those who died in Pittsburgh.

The man arrested in the mass shooting Saturday at a Pennsylvania synagogue appears to have made virulently anti-Semitic posts on a social media platform popular with far-right extremists, including one made shortly before the attack.

Police have identified the suspect as Robert Bowers, 46, of Pittsburgh. A man with the same name posted on the site Gab. com on the morning of the shooting that “HIAS 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.”

HIAS is a Marylandbased nonprofit group that helps refugees around the world find safety and freedom. The organization says it is guided by Jewish values and history. President and CEO Mark Hetfield said he wasn’t aware of the shooter’s “obsession with HIAS until this morning.”

The shooter opened fire at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, killing 11 people and wounding at least six others including four police officers. Bowers was wounded in a shootout with police and was reported to be in custody Saturday at a nearby hospital.