WHITE HOUSE — A man yelling “all these Jews must die” burst into a Pittsburgh synagogue during Sabbath services Saturday, shooting indiscriminately and killing 11 congregants in the latest mass shooting in the United States.
Six people, including a police officer who confronted the attacker, were also wounded, according to officials, who say two of the civilian victims are in critical condition.
This is “likely the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is taking the lead, investigating the shooting as a hate crime.
The suspect in custody, 46-year-old Robert Bowers, from just south of the city of Pittsburgh, is in fair condition with multiple gunshot wounds, according to Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich.
Authorities say the suspect was armed with an assault rifle and three handguns when he entered the synagogue where about 80 people had gathered for weekly worship, as well as a circumcision ceremony.
Social media posts attributed to Bowers indicated his hatred of Jews.
A message apparently posted just minutes before the attack stated: “I can’t wait while my people are getting slaughtered … I’m going in.”
The FBI special agent in charge in Pittsburgh, Bob Jones, told a news conference, “We have no knowledge that he was known to law enforcement before today.”
Jones added that the synagogue mass shooting is the “most horrific crime scene” he has seen in his 22 years with the FBI.
“The vile, hate-filled poison of anti-Semitism must be condemned,” U.S. President Donald Trump declared.
“Our minds cannot comprehend the cruel hate and the twisted malice that could cause a person to unleash such terrible violence during a baby-naming ceremony — this was a baby-naming ceremony — at a sacred house of worship on the holy day of Sabbath,” Trump told the FFA, formerly known as the Future Farmers of America, at their national convention in Indiana.
During his speech, the president told the young people that he had contemplated canceling his public events today, including a political rally in Illinois, but decided that “I will go to Illinois, and we’ll keep our schedule the way it’s supposed to be, and we should all do that, and I maybe recommend that to others also.”
Asked later by a reporter on the tarmac of Southern Illinois Airport about the suspect’s social media posts, Trump declared that “he was no supporter of mine,” describing Bowers as “a very anti-Semitic man. His thought process is sick. We have to bring back the death penalty for people like this.”
At a political rally in Murphysboro, Illinois, the president told the partisan crowd he would be toning down, for the evening, his trademark criticism of political opponents amid the somber national mood.
The Pittsburgh shooting was “a monstrous killing of Jewish Americans,” Trump said. “This evil anti-Semitic attack is an assault on all of us. It’s an assault on humanity.”
The president vowed that the “scourge of anti-Semitism cannot be allowed to continue,” adding that “we must stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters to vanquish anti-Semitism.”
At a news conference Saturday afternoon, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf told reporters, “In the aftermath of the tragedy, we must all come together and we must take action to prevent these tragedies in the future. We simply cannot accept this violence as a normal part of American life.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who graduated from high school in Pennsylvania, in a statement Saturday said, “I was heartbroken and appalled by the murderous attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue today.”
Several Sabbath services and the circumcision ceremony for an infant, on three levels of the building, were underway in the predominately Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill at 9:30 a.m. local time when the first shots were fired, according to congregants.
Tree of Life traces its roots back to the beginning of organized Judaism in Pittsburgh in the mid-1860s and has occupied its current building since 1946. Steve Herman with reports from Marissa Melton/Voice of America
