As the man accused of shooting and killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue building in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood crawled, wounded, toward Pittsburgh SWAT team officers to surrender, authorities said he repeatedly proclaimed, “All these Jews need to die.”

At a hearing this week, defense attorneys are trying to suppress those statements, arguing that Robert Bowers, 49, of Baldwin, had not been given his Miranda warning and the comments were coerced.

The proceeding, before Senior U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose, began Tuesday morning and is expected to last through Wednesday. Bowers was not present after his attorneys waived his appearance in a court filing last week.

Federal prosecutors called three SWAT officers Tuesday — all who testified that the suspect was not being formally questioned when he made the antisemitic statements. Instead, they said, Bowers made them spontaneously.

Pittsburgh police Tactical Cmdr. Stephen Mescan spent nearly three hours on the stand, describing the scene inside the synagogue the morning of Oct. 27, 2018, as “chaotic,” “fast-moving” and like nothing he had ever seen. The synagogue at Shady and Wilkins avenues housed the Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light congregations.

Using dozens of individual radio transmissions between tactical officers inside the synagogue and 911 dispatchers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo Song walked Mescan through the police response that morning.

It is the first time since the attack there has been detailed testimony recounting what happened inside the synagogue that day.

Initially, based on 911 calls and reports from the scene, officers believed there likely was more than one suspect in the building.

“Multiple calls. Many shots fired,” a dispatcher reported. “Call taker can hear the rapid gunfire in the calls. There are many people hiding.”

“I know multiple people trapped,” Mescan testified. “I know multiple people shot.”

Mescan described entering the building and immediately seeing two victims on a stairwell, as well as a blood trail leading to the basement.

Soon after, he said he discovered at least four people who had been killed.

Mescan described officers’ efforts to rescue others who were still alive, as well as their continued push to find those responsible.

“The floor plan is incredibly complicated,” he said of the synagogue building, noting officers continued their search “with the anticipation they’re going to run into somebody eventually.”

At 10:53 a.m., according to a radio transmission, there was an exchange of gunfire with Bowers.

Mescan said he was about 20 to 25 feet away from the suspect when he began firing.

“We have a guy barricaded, actively shooting at SWAT operators,” Mescan said over the radio.

At that point, Mescan continued, Officer Timothy Matson had been shot and other officers were dragging him down the stairs to get medical treatment.

Mescan said a bullet penetrated Matson’s helmet and struck him in the side of his head.

Mescan said he later learned another officer had been shot in the wrist and had a tourniquet on his hand.

“It’s extremely chaotic,” the officer testified. “We’re sure that our backs aren’t safe.”

Officer Clint Thimons, another member of the SWAT team, testified that he was near the room where the suspect had begun firing, and he saw a silhouette inside the dark room and then saw muzzle flashes.

Thimons and other officers returned fire.

It was a short time later, he said, that his team was able to establish communication with Bowers, who relayed that he had been shot multiple times.

Thimons, who led negotiations with Bowers, said at first, he heard the low, mumbled tone of a man’s voice.

“He wanted us to come get him,” Thimons testified Tuesday afternoon.

“‘Crawl out or you will die,’” he told the suspect.

“He was telling us he was injured and needed help,” Mescan testified.

Thimons said he told the suspect that officers would not go in to get him.

“I told him that he had to crawl out — he had to come out,” he said.

At 11:03 a.m., Bowers started to move toward them — crawling on his arms and elbows.

“We can see the guy, see his hands,” Mescan said. “We’re telling him to come to us.”

As Bowers crawled, Thimons testified, he paused several times, acting as if he was too injured to continue.

The officer continued to engage with the suspect, asking his name, date of birth and how he arrived at the synagogue.

Bowers answered all the questions. He told officers the types of weapons he had and complied when they told him to roll over, remove his jacket and lift up his shirt to show he had no explosives on his body. He continued to crawl toward them from the room to a landing and down a set of stairs.

“At this point, it’s very calm,” Thimons testified. “Mr. Bowers is speaking to us — just a normal conversation.”

It was during a period of silence, the officer continued, that he asked the suspect why he did it.

“I needed to keep him talking and focused on me, and that was the first question that popped into my mind,” Thimons said on cross-examination by assistant federal public defender Ashwin Cattamanchi.

“When you asked him that, you had a firearm pointed at him?” the attorney asked.

“Me, personally? No. But other officers? Yes,” Thimons answered.

The witness said even as Bowers explained his motivation, the suspect remained calm and matter of fact.

Another SWAT officer, David Blahut, testified he was one of the officers to handcuff the suspect that day. As Bowers was lying face up on the ground, he complained his cuffs were too tight.

When Blahut responded that he would be treated humanely and medics were on their way, Bowers again spoke out against Jewish people.

“He said, ‘Good. These people are committing genocide on my people. I just want to kill Jews,’” Blahut testified.

Blahut said he never asked the suspect any questions.

“He was in custody, and he wasn’t mirandized,” Blahut said.

When Bowers had been cuffed — by 11:13 a.m. — he had been moved from the hallway to a classroom where medics could work on him.

It was then that Thimons used a ruse to try to find out if Bowers had a partner in the attack. Thimons told the suspect they’d seen him on surveillance cameras entering the synagogue with another person.

“Mr. Bowers took full responsibility,” Mescan said.

“‘That must have been some (expletive) Jew. I came here all by myself,’” Mescan said Bowers told police.

Shawn Eigenbrode, a city of Pittsburgh tactical paramedic who works with the SWAT team, was the last witness of the day.

He told the court that when medics were called to work on Bowers, the suspect had gunshot wounds to his upper leg and left elbow.

While the man was bleeding, Eigenbrode said he would not characterize the wounds as life-threatening. He said Bowers did not complain that he was in pain until he was being carried down a fire escape on a stretcher and his elbow dragged along the wall.

In their motion to suppress his statements, defense attorneys argue Bowers did not receive his Miranda warning until he was being transported to the hospital to be treated for his injuries. It was then, they said, that he invoked his right to counsel, and later invoked his right to remain silent while at the hospital.

The defense argued officers on the scene questioned Bowers and that he already was in custody.

“Mr. Bowers had no freedom of action,” they wrote in their motion.

Further, they continued, “officers knew the questions would elicit incriminating responses.

“The ill-gotten evidence must be suppressed.”

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