A year afterward, a 19-year-old killed one person and wounded three others at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in California – violence exemplifying the ongoing threat to American Jewry. The mass shooting is part of a broader rise in antisemitism in recent years. He also made antisemitic comments during the shooting and while receiving medical care indicating his desire to “kill Jews,” according to a superseding indictment. The Justice Department said minutes before storming inside the building, Bowers logged onto Gab and wrote, “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. He particularly criticized migrants as “invaders” and repeatedly disparaged the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a non-profit providing support to refugees. Among the dead were a 97-year-old great-grandmother, an 87-year-old accountant and the Simons, who were married at the synagogue more than 60 years earlier.įor weeks before the shooting, Bowers posted attacks on immigrants and Jewish people on Gab, a small social media platform then used by far- right extremists. The mass shooting left 11 people dead and six wounded, including four police officers who responded to the scene. “I asked God to forgive me because I couldn’t save them,” he said.ġ1 people were gunned down at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Myers was asked if, as he left, he thought he would see the people in the chapel with him again. Myers described hearing gunshots in the synagogue and telling congregants to lay in the pews and stay quiet because he didn’t think some of them could make it out by running. I expected to die … initially I was trying to decide to hang up the phone and call my wife or make a video, I thought I was – if this was the end, I was going to leave her like that – that wouldn’t be fair to leave her like that.” Prosecutors asked what was happening in that moment and Myers said, “I was praying. With Rabbi Jeffrey Myers on the stand, prosecutors played a 911 call the rabbi and cantor made while running from the main lobby and chapel, trying to find an escape route as he climbed up the stairs.Īt one point in the audio, Myers is quiet and echoes of loud chaotic noises are heard in the background. Rabbi says he was praying because he expected to die “We know that there is more to the story.” “The prosecution says that Robert Bowers had a deep and abiding prejudice, that he hated Jews,” she said. In response, defense attorney Judy Clarke acknowledged there was “no question that this was a planned act” but asked jurors to “carefully scrutinize his intent” in the shooting. “Once he entered the synagogue the defendant began to hunt, he moved from room to room, upstairs and downstairs … looking for Jewish worshippers to kill,” said prosecutor Soo C. Prosecutors said he carried out the attack due to his hatred for Jews. In opening statements Tuesday, both prosecutors and defense attorneys focused their arguments on Bowers’ motive and intent. Jury selection began in late April, with 12 jurors and six alternates seated last week. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. The 911 call and opening statements marked the beginning of the trial for Robert Bowers, 50, who has pleaded not guilty to 63 charges, including obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death. Members of Pittsburgh's Jewish community enter the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh for the first day of the trial for Robert Bowers on Tuesday, May 30. Simon, 84, and her husband Sylvan, 86, were both killed. The screaming continued, and the dispatcher asked Simon if she could hear her, to which there was then no response. “I’m scared to death,” she added in the call. “My husband’s shot, oh dear God, my husband’s bleeding, he’s shot in the back.” “Tree of Life, we’re being attacked … We’re being attacked!” Simon exclaimed on the phone. Loud noises could be heard in the background of the call, including shrieking and commotion, as a gunman shot congregants inside. “I was hearing her being shot,” Basa-Sabol told the court.įederal prosecutors played audio of the 911 call in court. Shannon Basa-Sabol was the first witness in the trial and testified she answered a 911 call from Bernice Simon from inside the Tree of Life synagogue that day. The federal death penalty trial of the man accused of killing 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018 began Tuesday with harrowing audio of a 911 call featuring one of the victim’s last words.
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