Pittsburgh shooting: 11 dead in synagogue attack with suspect Rob Bowers to face federal hate crime charges
Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu all release statements condemning attack
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Eleven people have been killed during a mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in what Donald Trump called a "wicked" antisemitic act of mass murder.
Another six people were injured, two of them critically – including four police officers having exchanged fire with the shooter. Among the injured were a 61-year-old woman, a 70-year-old man and a 55-year old police officer. A suspect – later named as Robert Bowers, who is in his 40s – was arrested at the scene and also taken to hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions later announced the Justice Department will file hate crimes charges against Mr Bowers, “including charges that could lead to the death penalty".
There were a number of services underway at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighbourhood, including a baby-naming ceremony or bris, when the active shooter call was placed to police just before 10am.
“It’s a very horrific crime scene,“ Wendell Hissrich, Pittsburgh public safety director, said at the scene. “One of the worst that I’ve seen.” Law enforcement officials said that the shooter was armed with an assault weapon, and three handguns – although it was not clear all were used. Dispatchers on police radio claimed that the shooter made a number of comments during a stand-off with police about wanting to kill Jews.
Federal officials said the shooter went into the synagogue and shot the congregation before being engaged by officers on his way out. Two were shot before the gunman returned into the building to hide from approaching Swat teams. Two Swat officers were injured in a later exchange of gunfire.
The FBI are now leading the federal hate crime investigation. Mr Bowers is said to have been acting alone, with the lead FBI investigator, Bob Jones, saying that officials believed he was unknown to law enforcement before the shooting.
Speaking at a Future Farmers of America convention in Indianapolis, Mr Trump called the shooting a “wicked act of mass murder” that is antisemitic and “pure evil, hard to believe.The president added that antisemitism ”must be confronted anywhere and everywhere it appears".
The FBI say they will now be looking into every facet of the suspect’s life as they seek to pin down a motive. From his home, to his vehicle, to his movements in recent days. However a focus will be his social media output, with accounts under the suspect's name appearing to show a number of antisemitic rants.
A social media post just before the time of the shooting under a profile with the name Robert Bowers said a Jewish refugee organisation, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, “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".
Saturday’s mass shooting comes just 10 days before a bitterly fought national midterm election that has divided the country and set Americans on edge, and in a week in which more than a dozen pipe bombs were mailed to critics of Mr Trump.
Mr Trump said on his way to Indianapolis, before a later rally in Illinois: “It’s a terrible, terrible thing what’s going on with hate in our country and frankly all over the world, and something has to be done.”
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Local TV news footage showed police at that location with rifles and wearing helmets and other tactical gear. Paramedics also were stationed near the synagogue and police vehicles were blocking some streets in the area.
The shooter surrendered to Pittsburgh police and was being transported to Mercy Hospital, said Curt Conrad, chief of staff for City Councilman Corey O'Connor.
A local CBS reporter has interviewed an emotional man outside the synagogue, he said his father-in-law was inside.
Jeff Finkelstein of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh has told local media WPXI that the organisation's security officer has notified all synagogues and that they are on modified lockdown.
The New York Police Department's Commissioner for Communications, J Peter Donald, has tweeted that there are some extra precautions being taken in the city in the wake of the Pittsburgh shooting:
It is believed that 12 people have been shot in total, according to law enforcement officials.
The FBI have been drafted into the investigation into the shooting.
Rabbi Chuck Diamond, a former spiritual leader of Tree of Life, told reporters that he never spoke to his congregation about what to do during a shooting, but it's something he thought about.
"There's a lot of anti-Semitism out there and a lot of hate out there," Mr Diamond said. "Sobering that it's touched our community."
The suspect is said to have surrendered armed with an AR-15 style rifle, and a handgun, according to law enforcement sources.
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