Synagogue shooter in Pittsburgh charged with murder of 11 people

Ioana Erdei 28/10/2018 | 10:10

Eleven people were killed and six wounded in a shooting at a synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, USA, on Saturday, according to The Guardian.

Donald Trump called the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue “a wicked act of mass murder” and decried antisemitism in all forms. He staged a campaign rally in Illinois as scheduled.

The suspected gunman was identified as Robert Bowers, a Pittsburgh resident who is reportedly 46 years old. He was taken to hospital in the city and reported to be in fair condition.

Federal prosecutors have charged Bowers with 29 charges, including obstructing the exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death, 11 counts of using a firearm to commit murder, weapons offences and seriously injuring police officers. The FBI was investigating the shooting as a federal hate crime.

“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 news conference, characterizing the slaughter as a “terrible and unspeakable act of hate”.

The identities of the dead were not immediately released but Wendell Hissrich, Pittsburgh’s public safety director, told an afternoon news conference no children were killed. The toll of wounded did not include the suspect, he said.

The suspect appeared to have far-right views. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the local CBS affiliate KDJA reported that a “white male [with] a beard …walked in yelling ‘All Jews must die’.” Social media accounts in the name of Robert Bowers contained antisemitic rants.

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