Eleven people were killed and six others wounded when a gunman opened fire on Saturday at the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
Worshipers had gathered at the synagogue for a baby naming ceremony during the Sabbath when the gun man identified by Police as Robert Bowers entered the synagogue armed with an assault rifle and two pistols and started the mass shooting while making antisemitism comments while shouting “All Jews must die.”
The assailant is believed to have fired for several minutes and was leaving the synagogue when officers, dressed in tactical gear and armed with rifles, met him at the door. According to the police, Mr. Bowers exchanged gunfire with officers before retreating back inside and barricading himself inside a third floor room before he eventually surrendered.
According to the officials, Mr. Bowers will be charged with with 29 criminal counts: obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs, a hate crime, using a firearm to commit murder. He also faces state charges, including 11 counts of criminal homicide, six counts of aggravated assault and 13 counts of ethnic intimidation.
President Donald Trump who promised to visit Pittsburgh said that a lot of people had been killed and injured referring to the incident as a “wicked act of mass murder”.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish non-governmental organisation that fights anti-Semitism have said that the Pittsburgh incident is by far the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.
Hundreds of people from the neighborhood and also all across Pittsburgh gathered for an interfaith vigil for the victims of the attack in Squirrel Hill.
Pittsburgh’s Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich has confirmed that the suspect, Mr. Bowers was being treated in hospital after he suffered gunshot wounds during the exchange with the police.
“The crime scene was horrific. One of the worst I’ve seen, and I’ve worked on some plane crashes. It’s very bad,” said Wendell Hissrich.
