Gunman kills 11 in attack on synagogue
Suspect in custody after Pittsburgh shooting
PITTSBURGH — A gunman who is believed to have spewed antiSemitic slurs and rhetoric on social media barged into a baby- naming ceremony at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday and opened fire, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest attacks on Jews in U. S. history.
The 20- minute attack at Tree of Life Congregation in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood left at least six others wounded, including four police officers who dashed to the scene, authorities said.
The suspect, Robert Bowers, traded gunfire with police and was shot several times. Bowers, who was in fair condition at a hospital, was expected to face federal hatecrime charges.
“Please know that justice in this case will be swift and it will be severe,” Scott Brady, the chief federal prosecutor in western Pennsylvania, said at a late- afternoon news conference, characterizing the slaughter as a “terrible and unspeakable act of hate.”
The shooting came amid a rash of high- profile attacks in an increasingly divided country, including the series of pipe bombs mailed over the past week to prominent Democrats and former officials.
The shooting also immediately reignited the long- standing national debate about guns: President Donald Trump said the outcome might have been different if the synagogue “had some kind of protection” from an armed guard, while Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf noted that once again “dangerous weapons are putting our citizens in harm’s way.”
Bob Jones, head of the FBI’s Pittsburgh office, said worshippers “were brutally murdered by a gunman targeting them simply because of their faith,” though he cautioned the shooter’s full motive was not yet known.
The social media site Gab. com said the alleged shooter had a profile on its website, which is popular with far- right extremists. The company said the account was verified after the shooting and matched the name of the gunman.
A man with the same name posted on Gab before 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 nonprofit group that helps refugees around the world find safety and freedom. The organization says it is guided by Jewish values and history.
Bowers also recently posted a photo of a collection of three semiautomatic handguns he titled “my glock family,” a reference to the firearms manufacturer. He also posted photos of bullet holes in person- sized targets at a firing range, touting the “amazing trigger” on a handgun he was offering for sale.
The attack took place during a baby- naming ceremony, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. During a Jewish babynaming ceremony, the baby is given his or her Hebrew name. The name could be a name that sounds like the baby’s secular name or has significance in his or her family’s history.
Officials later said no children were hurt.
Trump called the shooting a “wicked act of mass murder” that
“is pure evil, hard to believe and frankly something that is unimaginable.”
Trump has at times been accused by critics of failing to adequately condemn hate, such as when he blamed “both sides” for the violence at a Charlottesville white supremacist rally.
On Saturday, he said anti- Semitism “must be confronted anywhere and everywhere it appears.”
The synagogue is a fortress- like concrete building, its facade punctuated by rows of swirling, modernistic stained- glass windows illustrating the story of creation, the acceptance of God’s law, the “life cycle” and “how human- beings should care for the earth and one another,” according to its website. Among its treasures is a “Holocaust Torah,” rescued from Czechoslovakia.
Its sanctuary can hold up to 1,250 people.