Robert Bowers Trial category, Page 3
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting memorial mural met with approval in Squirrel Hill
As with Pittsburgh’s efforts to come to grips with the horror of the events of Oct. 27, 2018, a Tree of Life shooting memorial mural unveiled Wednesday in Squirrel Hill is a work in progress. The mural includes a line of human figures holding hands against a background of hearts...
Opinions in Jewish community differ on seeking death penalty for Pittsburgh synagogue shooter
Robert Bowers murdered Donna Coufal’s friend. But she doesn’t want him to be executed for it. “I hope that, whatever happens in (Bowers’) trial, people find peace,” said Coufal, 69, a member of Congregation Dor Hadash who lives in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill. “And I hope no other jury would have...
Experts debate brain imaging of Pittsburgh synagogue shooter
An MRI of Robert Bowers’ brain shows an unusually large number of white matter lesions that could be indicative of schizophrenia, an expert testified Tuesday. But those types of lesions also can be caused by uncontrolled high blood pressure, migraines or heavy smoking, the expert said. Dr. Murray A. Solomon,...
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial enters death-penalty eligibility phase
Brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal couldn’t read or write. They couldn’t process complicated situations. Loud noises scared them. Dan Stein, at age 71, was soon to get hearing aids, and getting up and down was so difficult that he was never able to play with his 7-month-old grandson on the...
Life or death? In Pittsburgh synagogue trial, for jury it’s no longer a question of guilt
The defendant was apprehended inside the Squirrel Hill synagogue and confessed to police who wounded him in a gunbattle. At trial, the opening words of his defense team included an admission that their client killed 11 people who were worshipping inside the Tree of Life synagogue on the morning of...
After 3 weeks and a guilty verdict on all counts, Pittsburgh synagogue attack trial moves to penalty phase
On Friday, after hearing three weeks of testimony and deliberating for less than five hours, the jury in the federal case of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting found the defendant guilty of all 63 counts. Attorneys for Robert Bowers, 50, of Baldwin admitted that he entered the Tree of...
Synagogue attack verdict brings out range of emotions in Pittsburgh Jewish community
David Knoll sat in his Squirrel Hill home Friday morning, waiting for the news to break. He wanted confirmation of what he already knew: Robert Bowers committed hate crimes against Jews when he killed 11 congregants inside the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. Then, at 11:52 a.m.,...
Jury finds gunman guilty on all counts in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
It was almost a foregone conclusion. Even defense attorneys for Robert Bowers told the jury that their client did it. He’s the one who entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill on the morning of Oct. 27, 2018, carrying an AR-15 and three handguns. He’s the one...
Pittsburgh synagogue attacker’s ‘hatred of Jews runs deep,’ prosecutor says before case goes to jury
On the morning of Oct. 27, 2018, the three congregations that met at the Tree of Life synagogue planned to focus on a lesson from the book of Genesis in the Torah — welcoming the stranger. As they prepared for that lesson, an imperative in the Jewish faith, a stranger...
‘We were filled with terror,’ Pittsburgh synagogue attack survivor testifies; closing arguments Thursday
Andrea Wedner and her 97-year-old mother, Rose Mallinger, lay head-to-head under their pew, hiding from the man who had just fired an AR-15 repeatedly inside the Tree of Life synagogue. They were frantic. Wedner had seen the man later identified as Robert Bowers standing in the doorway at the back...
Pittsburgh synagogue attacker’s social media activity showed hatred of Jews
A terrorism expert testified Tuesday that the man accused of killing 11 people at a Squirrel Hill synagogue in 2018 dealt in the same kinds of hateful tropes, symbols and conspiracies used online by many white supremacists in the United States. William Braniff is director of the Center for Prevention...
Social media site Gab.com a hub for Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s antisemitism, investigation showed
One by one, FBI tactical specialist Evan Browne read the posts. That Jews are evil. About sending Jews to the ovens. How Hitler was right. The hate-filled, antisemitic words and images were collected by agents from Robert Bowers’ posts on the alt-right social media platform Gab.com between Sept. 8 and...
‘I didn’t want to die’: Week 2 recap of Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial
The second week of trial in the Squirrel Hill synagogue mass shooting featured testimony from 25 government witnesses, video from inside the synagogue as Pittsburgh SWAT officers cleared the building the morning of Oct. 27, 2018, and difficult-to-hear autopsy evidence for the 11 victims. In addition, one member of the jury,...
2nd week of Pittsburgh synagogue attack trial wraps up with testimony from police, FBI
The tourniquet wasn’t working. In the minutes after Pittsburgh SWAT Officer Anthony Burke was shot through his right hand during a gunfight at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill, he moved to another upstairs classroom, and another team member placed the tourniquet around his arm. “My hand was...
Pittsburgh synagogue gunman described as ‘nice and cordial’ after the attack
As he was being treated at Allegheny General Hospital for gunshot wounds suffered in a firefight with Pittsburgh police at the Tree of Life synagogue, Robert Bowers was described as being “very polite, very cooperative.” “He kind of was very nice and cordial with everybody,” Pittsburgh police Detective Robert Shaw...
‘They invade my thoughts every day,’ officer says of memories of Pittsburgh synagogue attack carnage
Pittsburgh SWAT Officer John Persin remembers the smell inside the Tree of Life synagogue’s Pervin Chapel on the morning of Oct. 27, 2018. Iron from the spilled blood. Persin was one of the first officers to enter the synagogue in response to an active shooter call there that morning. He...
‘Bro, I can’t move,’ critically wounded officer told medics after being shot in Pittsburgh synagogue
Critically wounded Pittsburgh SWAT Officer Timothy Matson had just been carried down the stairs by two of his colleagues when SWAT Medic Justin Sypolt began to evaluate him. They put the largest member of the SWAT team — previously described as 6-foot-5, 315 pounds — in the Tree of Life...
Editorial: With synagogue shooting trial unfolding, Pennsylvania and federal courts need to reevaluate position on cameras in the courtroom
The courtroom sketch is an attempt to capture a moment with the strokes of charcoal, the lines of a colored pencil and the shade of some oil pastels. It is the intersection of art and a specific kind of journalism. It is a valuable tool that blends information and craft....
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial: Week 1 featured emotional testimony and chilling 911 recordings
The first week of the trial in the mass shooting at a Squirrel Hill synagogue included opening statements, testimony from 21 witnesses and very little cross- examination. They testified in the trial of Robert Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, who is accused of committing the Oct. 27, 2018, mass shooting at...
‘Crawl out or you will die,’ SWAT officer told wounded Pittsburgh synagogue gunman
Moments after exchanging gunfire with the man who had killed 11 congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue building in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh SWAT Officer Clint Thimons shouted a command at him. “Crawl out or you will die.” Thimons testified in federal court Friday that the gunman told police he...
Lori Falce: Synagogue shooting trial spotlights a horror that hasn’t changed
Everyone sees terrible things every day. We just see them from a safe distance. We see people die in horror movies in ways that make you question the sanity of the person who wrote the script. Television serves up the kind of fictional crime dramas that are a staple of...
‘A cancer on our society’: Gun violence awareness rally comes to Pittsburgh
The timing of Friday’s “Wear Orange” National Gun Violence Awareness event wasn’t meant to occur simultaneously with the Pittsburgh synagogue trial. That’s a coincidence. Josh Fleitman notes that it’s a common one these days. “I think the trial that’s happening right now, for so many people in the Squirrel Hill...
Pittsburgh officer wounded in synagogue attack recounts encounter with gunman
Pittsburgh police Officer Daniel Mead was just about to start his 10 a.m. shift in Squirrel Hill on Oct. 27, 2018, when, during roll call, he and his partner heard a report of an active shooter at the Tree of Life synagogue a few blocks away. They raced out the...
‘We moved toward the gunfire’: Pittsburgh synagogue shooting survivors testify
Dan Leger thought he was dying. Moments earlier on the morning of Oct. 27, 2018, Leger had been shot in the abdomen during services for the Dor Hadash congregation inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill. The long-time palliative care nurse recognized his symptoms — mounting internal...
Rabbi, dispatcher recount horrors of Pittsburgh synagogue attack
For 40 minutes, Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers gripped the doorknob in his right hand and held his cellphone to his ear with his left. As the 911 calltaker sat silently on the other end of the line, waiting to hear more information about the active shooter in the...
