Defendant in Pittsburgh synagogue massacre carried out attack, defense acknowledges as trial begins

A lawyer for the man charged in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history has acknowledged that he planned and carried out the massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue and made hateful statements about Jewish people. Defense attorney Judy Clarke told jurors Tuesday that Robert Bowers went to the Tree of Life synagogue and “shot every person he saw." Bowers went on trial Tuesday, more than four years after the attack that killed 11 worshippers. He could face the death penalty if he is convicted of some of the 63 counts he faces. The defense hopes to persuade the jury to spare his life.

By PETER SMITH (Associated Press)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Robert Bowers carried out the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history when he killed 11 people and injured seven others by storming a Pittsburgh synagogue and shooting everyone he could find. On that, everyone agrees.

Even though Bowers’ defense conceded the point Tuesday at the outset of his federal trial, they hope to spare the suburban truck driver from a possible death sentence over the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue.

His lead lawyer, Judy Clarke, said during opening statements that Bowers “shot every person he saw” that day in the building, which was being shared by members of three congregations, Dor Hadash, New Light and the Tree of Life. But she questioned whether Bowers had acted out of hatred or an irrational belief that he needed to kill Jews to save others from the genocide he claimed they were enabling by helping immigrants come to the U.S.

“He had what to us is this unthinkable, nonsensical, irrational thought: that by killing Jews, he would attain his goal,” Clarke said. “There is no making sense of this senseless act. Mr. Bowers caused extraordinary harm to many, many people.”

Prosecutors, who rejected the 50-year-old Bowers’ offer to plead guilty in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table, opened their case by describing for jurors the terror he sowed as he moved through the synagogue, opening fire indiscriminately.

“The depths of the defendant’s malice and hate can only be proven in the broken bodies” of the victims and “his hateful words,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo C. Song told the 12 jurors and six alternates hearing the case.

As Song spoke, some of the survivors in the somber courtroom dabbed tears. Bowers, seated at the defense table, showed no reaction.

Prosecutors have said Bowers made incriminating statements to investigators and left an online trail of antisemitic statements that they say shows the attack was motivated by religious hatred. Police shot Bowers three times before he surrendered.

After opening statements, prosecutors began presenting their case by playing an initial 911 call from Bernice Simon, who reported “we’re being attacked!” at the synagogue and that her husband, Sylvan Simon, had been shot.

Shannon Basa-Sabol, the dispatcher who took that call, testified that she advised Bernice Simon to find the wound and stanch the bleeding. Then the dispatcher heard additional gunfire and screaming as Bernice, too, was shot. Neither of the Simons survived.

“Bernice, are you still with me?” Basa-Sabol asked in the recording, There was no answer.

Song also described in detail how worshippers from three congregations arrived that Sabbath to pray and socialize in what should have been a safe place.

She described how Tree of Life members Cecil and David Rosenthal showed up early as usual to help greet and set up for worship — brothers who were fully integrated into their congregation despite their intellectual disabilities. She also told how the oldest victim, 97-year-old Rose Mallinger, typically offered a weekly prayer for peace at Tree of Life, while another victim, Jerry Rabinowitz of Congregation Dor Hadash, was a medical doctor who was killed after running toward the sound of gunshots seeking to help.

But she said the story of that day is not just of atrocity, but of survival and of police heroics in confronting and stopping Bowers. “Life survived and emerged from the Tree of Life synagogue,” Song said.

Bowers, who is from the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin, also injured seven people, including five police officers who responded to the scene, investigators said.

In a filing earlier this year, prosecutors said Bowers “harbored deep, murderous animosity towards all Jewish people.” They said he also expressed hatred for HIAS, founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a nonprofit humanitarian group that helps refugees and asylum seekers.

Prosecutors wrote in a court filing that Bowers had nearly 400 followers on his Gab social media account “to whom he promoted his antisemitic views and calls to violence against Jews.”

In the long run-up to the trial, Bowers’ lawyers did little to cast doubt on whether he was the gunman and instead focused on trying to save his life. As an indication that the trial’s guilt-or-innocence phase would be almost a foregone conclusion, they spent little time during jury selection asking how potential jurors would reach a verdict.

Instead, they focused on the penalty phase and how jurors would decide whether to impose the death penalty in a case of a man charged with hate-motivated killings in a house of worship. The defense lawyers, who recently said Bowers has schizophrenia and brain impairments, probed whether potential jurors could consider factors such as mental illness or a difficult childhood.

The families of those killed are divided over whether the government should pursue the death penalty, but most have voiced support for it.

The three congregations have spoken out against antisemitism and other forms of bigotry since the attack. The Tree of Life congregation also is working with partners on plans to overhaul its current structure, which still stands but has been closed since the shootings, by creating a complex that would house a sanctuary, museum, memorial and center for fighting antisemitism.

The death penalty trial, which is being presided over by Judge Robert Colville, is proceeding three years after now-President Joe Biden said during his 2020 campaign that he would work to end capital punishment at the federal level and in states that still use it. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, has temporarily paused executions to review policies and procedures, but federal prosecutors continue to vigorously work to uphold death sentences that have been issued and, in some cases, to pursue new death sentences at trial.

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Associated Press reporter Michael Rubinkam in northeastern Pennsylvania contributed to this report.

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