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.”
If you want to see how the day unfolded read our live coverage below.
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The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center system says it's treating multiple victims from a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Paul Wood, the chief communications officer for the hospital system, said the patients are receiving care at UPMC Presbyterian, but he would not say how many.
A police tactical team on the scene in Pittsburgh (AP)
Donald Trump is speaking to the media - he suggests that if protection had been better at the synagogue, things might have been different.
"I hate to think" that synagogue's would need armed guards
Mr Trump denounces "hate" in America
He called the shooting a "terrible, terrible" situation - but said "something needs to be done about" the level of hate in the country.
As he has done after previous shootings, the president calls for tougher death penalty laws.
Before he spoke Mr Trump tweeted this:
Which, if authorities have not yet been able to contact all families involved, will likely not go down well.
Speaking to reporters, President Donald Trump said that the shooting had "little to do" with gun laws and that the shooter could have been stopped if the synagogue had armed protection.
"This has little to do with [gun laws] if you take a look," Mr Trump said when asked about gun rights. "If they'd had protection inside, the result would have been a lot better."
"Maybe it could have been a very much different situation," he added.
He suggested that holy places might want to consider armed protection.
"They had a maniac walk in and they didn't have any protection and that is just so sad to see," he said. "The results could have been much better."
He also said that people like this should receive the death penalty and called for its heightened use.
"I think they should very much bring the death penalty into vogue," he said.
Pennsylvania attorney general says "shooter claimed innocent lives" at a baby naming ceremony.
The shooter made antisemetic comments during the incident, according to multiple law enforcement officials.
Michael Eisenberg, the immediate past president of Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue, told CNN affiliate WPXI that on the High Holidays, there is a police presence. But not on this Saturday.
“On a day like today,” he said, “the door is open. It’s a religious service you could walk in and out.”
There are three simultaneous Shabbat services in the main part of the building, he said. Nearly 100 people attend the three services, which began shortly before 10 a.m.
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