Harrowing 911 calls were among the first pieces of evidence introduced Tuesday in the trial against Robert Bowers, the man accused of killing 11 worshippers in the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
More than four years after the worst antisemitic attack in American history, and after a weeks-long jury selection process, opening arguments and testimony began in the federal courthouse in Downtown Pittsburgh.
One of Mr. Bowers’ lawyers didn’t dispute he was the shooter, saying in her opening remarks that “there is no disagreement, no dispute and there will be no doubt who shot and killed the 11 congregants.” Mr. Bowers has pleaded not guilty to the 63 federal charges against him.
Tearful testimony by Jeffrey Myers, the rabbi and cantor for the Tree of Life congregation, ended the first day.
Testimony will resume Wednesday at about 9 a.m.
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6:32 p.m.
The synagogue shooting trial started with grief and tears
Bernice Simon screamed into her cell phone: “We’re being attacked,” she said. “My husband’s been shot. My husband’s been shot in the back.”
Shannon Basa-Sabol, a 911 dispatcher, tried to understand what was happening. She asked for the caller’s name and address.
“We’re on Wilkins and Shady, the Tree of Life synagogue, we’re being attacked,” Simon screamed.
The panicked call was the first made during the Oct. 27, 2018 attack on the Squirrel Hill synagogue, where three congregations worshiped. It was Saturday, the Sabbath. Services were just starting.
The harrowing audio was among the first pieces of evidence introduced Tuesday in the federal trial against Robert Bowers, the man accused of killing 11 worshippers that day. More than four years after the worst antisemitic attack in American history, and after a weeks-long jury selection process, opening arguments and testimony began in the federal courthouse in Downtown Pittsburgh.
The day included opening arguments by prosecutors and defense lawyers, and tearful testimony from a rabbi who said he “expected to die.” And for the first time, an attorney for Mr. Bowers, who has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him, effectively acknowledged he was the shooter. Testimony will resume Wednesday morning.
— Megan Guza and Hallie Lauer
Read more: 'My husband's been shot.' 'I expected to die.' Synagogue shooting trial opens with grief, tears.
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5:02 p.m.
Calm and quiet in Squirrel Hill on the trial’s first day
Squirrel Hill, the site of the deadly 2018 synagogue shooting, had an aura of quiet peacefulness amid the momentous trial’s first day.
At Pinsker’s Judaica Center, store owner Baila Cohen said the trial is stirring up old feelings. The store, filled with menorahs, mezuzahs, challah boards, kiddush cups and other items, has been in Squirrel Hill for decades.
“I had someone come in yesterday who wanted a Jewish star necklace and said she was concerned about whether or not she will wear it in public, whether identifying clearly as a Jew is still a little too much of making yourself a target,” she said.
Ms. Cohen is a 17-year resident of Squirrel Hill, with Holocaust survivors on both sides of her family. She says armed security guards still protect the synagogues she visits. She wonders if the trial will embolden the hatred that fueled the tragedy in the first place.
“It's definitely bringing it back much more, and you worry that people who support the person who did this are going to be more actively involved in coming to the community to show their support and to be heard,” she said.
She feels “conflicted” over whether Robert Bowers, the accused shooter, should get the death penalty. While she says the Jewish religion does permit the death penalty, she still feels uncertain about what would be justified.
"I mean, Jewish tradition allows for the fact that someone who has the intention of killing people can be killed for that," she said. “I don't think it's off the table. I don't think it's likely based on what I have seen, but I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other.”
No matter what the outcome is, she expects it to be “just” and “keep people safe.” In the meantime, he said, the community remains in solidarity, as it always has.
“This has really brought out two things… the anxiety, but it's also brought up pride,” she said “As the trial goes on, I think people will want to make a point of identifying with the Jewish community and supporting the Jewish community.”
— Jordan Anderson
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4:49 p.m.
‘I expected to die’: Rabbi’s tearful testimony ends trial’s first day
During the second portion of Rabbi Myers' testimony, he outlined the events of the morning of Oct. 27, 2018.
Shortly after the Shabbat service began, Rabbi Myers said he thought he heard someone knock over a metal coat rack in the lobby. A few moments later he determined that the sound was gunfire and instructed congregants to get on the floor or lay in the pews, “with the hopes that they would be unseen,” he said.
“It was a metallic sort of pinging sound,” Rabbi Myers said. “It sounded like it was bouncing off the marble because the entire floor outside the. Lobby is all marble.”
He helped three congregants safely escape the building once the gunfire started, but he didn’t leave the building, he testified.
He barricaded himself inside a bathroom in the choir loft, and called 911.
“Active shooter in the building, we have an active shooter,” the rabbi told the dispatcher in the 911 recording.
On the call, Rabbi Myers tells the dispatcher that he heard a woman yelling that her husband was shot. During his testimony Tuesday, he said he was “absolutely” certain that the woman was Bernice Simon.
Throughout the 911 call, Rabbi Myers continued to give updates to the dispatcher:
“I can hear more gunfire.”
“Ten more shots just fired.”
“Closer to my area, I can hear people screaming.”
The bathroom the rabbi had hidden in had a door that opened out, and while he was in there he kept his hand on the doorknob.
“I thought that if I could sense someone was turning the knob, I might have the element of surprise to pop open the door and fight,” he said.
The rabbi was visibly emotional on the stand, wiping away tears, as prosecutors played a portion of the 911 call. He could very faintly be heard praying on the call.
“I expected to die, and initially I was trying to decide, ‘Do I hang up the phone and call my wife or make a video?’” Rabbi Myers testified. “I thought if this was the end, I wasn’t going to leave her like that, for her to hear that. So I decided to stay on the phone with 911.”
“I thought about the history of my people, how we’ve been persecuted and hunted and slaughtered for centuries and how all of them must've felt at the moments before their death and what did they do?” he added. “And what they did is they recited Deuteronomy chapter six verse four.... I recited that.”
Rabbi Myers said he also recited what’s called the Final Confessional Prayer in the Jewish faith.
“Never thought that in my life I’d be reciting it in such a situation… that I'd become a martyr of my people,” he said.
Rabbi Myers was escorted out of the building by SWAT officers while the shooting was still ongoing and others were still inside.
He said that in that moment, he asked God to forgive him “because I couldn’t save them.”
— Hallie Lauer
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3:40 p.m.
Tree of Life rabbi takes the stand
Jeffrey Myers, the rabbi and cantor for the Tree of Life congregation, was called as the third prosecution witness. He explained various Jewish customs and the layout of the Squirrel Hill synagogue, where Tree of Life and two other congregations worshipped.
Using photos and a 3-D rendering of the synagogue, Rabbi Myers took the jury through the building, including the rooms where each of the three congregations worshiped. After services, he said, all three congregations would gather together and eat.
Prosecutors showed Rabbi Myers photos of all the congregants who were in attendance for services on Oct. 27, 2018, the day of the shooting. The rabbi identified each person by name, and as “regular attendees” at services.
After almost an hour-and-a-half on the stand, prosecutors called for a brief break. Rabbi Myers will return to the stand once court resumes.
— Hallie Lauer
Read more: The synagogue shooting changed 3 congregations forever. As the trial starts, they try to move forward.
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1:34 p.m.
A second 911 worker testifies
The second prosecution witness was Carol Janssenn, who has worked for Allegheny County’s 911 dispatch for 44 years. Part of her job is managing audio recordings from every call.
Ms. Janssen was called into work on Oct. 27, 2018, which was her day off, because a Pittsburgh police commander needed recordings from that day. Ms. Janssen was the person in charge of making those copies. She then provided them to the FBI.
— Hallie Lauer
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1:06 p.m.
City councilwoman addresses a divide on the death penalty
Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, who represents the Squirrel Hill neighborhood where the synagogue shooting took place, said she understands why there are differing opinions among the families and affected congregations when it comes to a potential death sentence for Mr. Bowers.
“I don’t expect any one community to share the exact same position on something” as serious as the death penalty, she said Tuesday during a panel discussion on MSNBC.
“Ultimately it’s up to the justice system and those jurors to make this decision,” she said.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitism, said the government needs to play a role in preventing future attacks, particularly from an education standpoint.
“Something is definitely wrong. … We have to make sure we protect communities,” he said on the MSNBC panel. “This case really matters to deter other extremists and would-be attackers.”
Read more: The death penalty loomed over jury selection
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12:28 p.m.
‘My husband’s been shot.’ The jury hears harrowing 911 calls before a lunch break
The first prosecution witness was Shannon Basa-Sabol, who had been working for Allegheny County emergency dispatch on Oct. 27, 2018. She took the first 911 call from the shooting. She was questioned by federal prosecutor Tony Rivetti, who had her explain her job and the process when someone calls 911.
“At the time, I did not know I was the first call, but I remember the call,” Ms. Basa-Sabol said. “I spoke with Bernice Simon.”
Two 911 calls Ms. Basa-Sabol took that day were played Tuesday for the jury. On one call, Ms. Simon can be heard in a panic saying “We’re being attacked,” and, “My husband’s been shot. My husband’s been shot in the back.”
Ms. Basa-Sabol can be heard saying “active shooter, Tree of Life synagogue.”
It’s policy for dispatchers to call back any disconnected call, and in a second call with Ms. Simon, Ms. Basa-Sabol instructed her to control the bleeding and to “stay on the ground.”
Ms. Simon repeatedly says, “please hurry.”
The second call ends with screaming and loud, banging sounds. When asked to explain Tuesday what was happening at the end of the call, Ms. Basa-Sabol said, “I was hearing her being shot.”
Ms. Basa-Sabol stayed on the phone with Ms. Simon, even after she was no longer responsive, to monitor for any other sounds. She ultimately ended the call after hearing police confirm two “doa” — or dead on arrival.
Ms. Basa-Sabol took a short break that day, and then continued to work.
Shortly after noon, the judge recessed court for about an hour for lunch.
— Hallie Lauer
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11:33 a.m.
Lawyer for Bowers calls him a ‘quiet, socially awkward man’
Some of Mr. Bowers’ antisemitic statements, which included expressing his desire to kill Jews, were posted on the far-right website Gab. “Jews are the children of Satan,” one of the postings said, according to Judy Clarke, one of his lawyers.
She went on to say during her opening remarks that Gab has many antisemitic posts, but that “something made Robert Bowers act.”
“These are federal charges, not straightforward murder charges,” and each has certain elements that have to be proven, she said.
Ms. Clarke, who effectively acknowledged earlier in her opening remarks that Mr. Bowers was the shooter, often referenced his “misguided intent” and “irrational thoughts.” And she called him a “quiet, socially awkward man who didn’t have many friends.”
The prosecution says “Robert Bowers had a deep and abiding prejudice, that he hated Jews end of story,” Ms. Clarke said. “But we know there’s more than that to the story.”
She repeatedly asked the jury to think about why Mr. Bowers did what he did.
The prosecution has now called its first witness, a woman who had been working as a 911 dispatcher on the day of the shooting.
— Hallie Lauer
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11:22 a.m.
‘He starts with a clean slate,’ judge says
Earlier, Judge Colville reminded jurors to keep an open mind.
“He starts the trial with a clean slate, with no evidence against him,” Judge Colville said, after laying out the 63 federal charges Mr. Bowers is facing. “The number of offenses is not evidence of guilt.”
While Mr. Bowers has pleaded not guilty to all 63 charges, one of his lawyers did not dispute in her opening remarks that he was the shooter. “There is no disagreement, no dispute and there will be no doubt who shot and killed the 11 congregants and wounded several others,” Judy Clarke said.
— Hallie Lauer
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11:15 a.m.
Defense lawyer doesn’t dispute Robert Bowers was the shooter
While Robert Bowers has pleaded not guilty to all 63 federal charges, one of his lawyers did not dispute that he was the shooter.
“The tragedy that brings us together today is almost impossible to grasp,” Judy Clarke said in her opening remarks. “It's incomprehensible, it’s inexcusable.”
“The loss that occurred is immeasurable, this senseless act,” she added. “The loss and devastation caused by Robert Bowers. There is no disagreement, no dispute and there will be no doubt who shot and killed the 11 congregants and wounded several others.”
Speaking directly to the jurors, Ms. Clarke asked them to listen to the evidence and “carefully scrutinize” Mr. Bowers’ intent.
“In response to the question ‘why did you do this,’ Mr. Bowers spewed forth his state of mind, his intent and his motive,” Ms. Clarke said. “I’m going to show you these statements because they're going to help you understand his irrational motive and his misguided intent.”
— Hallie Lauer
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10:38 a.m.
Bowers came to ‘find the Jews he hated and kill them,’ prosecutor says
A lawyer for the prosecution laid out in grim detail the events of the morning of Oct. 27, 2018.
During her opening remarks, Soo C. Song took the jury through what each of the 11 victims did the morning they were killed — and also what Mr. Bowers allegedly did.
“He pulled his car right up front and parked in a handicap spot. … He brought an arsenal with him,” Ms. Song said.
Throughout her opening remarks, Ms. Song talked in graphic detail about how each victim was killed or injured, including the Pittsburgh police officers and SWAT team members who responded to the scene.
“The defendant had moved methodically through the synagogue to find the Jews he hated and kill them,” Ms. Song said.
Multiple times, Ms. Song referenced a social media post that said “screw your optics, I’m going in,” allegedly posted by Mr. Bowers just before the shooting began. He then methodically went from room to room looking for people to kill, she said.
During the prosecution’s opening remarks, Mr. Bowers appeared to keep his head down, not looking at Ms. Song while she spoke.
She warned the jurors that there will be images and testimony that “might be challenging to hear,” and that some of it could be graphic. Ms. Song also told the jurors that the trial is “not only about hate.”
“At its core, the case is also about survival,” she said.
At the end of her remarks, Ms. Song said that prosecutors are seeking justice for each of the victims. And she proceeded to list them all by name: Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger.
— Hallie Lauer
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10:18 a.m.
Congress to commemorate Jewish American Heritage Month
WASHINGTON — As the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial gets underway Tuesday, the U.S. House is poised to pass its first-ever bipartisan resolution commemorating Jewish American Heritage Month.
The resolution calls on elected officials and other community leaders "to condemn and combat any and all acts of antisemitism." And it calls on the president and other leaders "to identify and educate the public on the contributions of the Jewish American community."
The 2018 shooting, which killed 11 worshippers at a Squirrel Hill synagogue, was the worst antisemitic attack in American history.
Presidents have issued proclamations in support of Jewish American Heritage Month, and each house of Congress has introduced its own resolution. But this is the first time the same bipartisan resolution has been proposed in both chambers.
The legislation's chief sponsor, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said that Jewish heritage month is "one of the most effective ways to combat rising antisemitism, as Jews and non-Jews alike come to learn about all the amazing Jewish Americans who served in government and the military, won Nobel prizes, led universities and corporations, made lifesaving medical discoveries, authored great American novels, and worked to further and share America’s noble experiment in democracy.”
Both of Pennsylvania's Democratic U.S. senators, Bob Casey and John Fetterman, are among the co-sponsors in that chamber, as is U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who is seeking the Republican nomination for president.
— Jonathan D. Salant
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10 a.m.
The trial didn’t have to happen. Here’s why it did.
The federal death penalty trial against accused synagogue shooter Robert Bowers didn’t necessarily have to take place.
Mr. Bowers, through his defense team, has offered to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison. His latest offer indicated he also would waive all rights to any appeals.
Bruce Antkowiak, a former federal prosecutor and defense lawyer now teaching at St. Vincent, said the process by which the Department of Justice decides whether or not to seek the death penalty isn’t a simple one.
Once a U.S. Attorney decides to try to certify a case as a death penalty one, it’s is referred to a panel within the Justice Department. Ultimately, it’s a decision made personally by the U.S. Attorney General. In this case, former-Attorney General William Barr would have been that person.
Mr. Antkowiak said federal prosecutors are not supposed to look at the death penalty as a bargaining chip to wrangle a guilty plea from a defendant.
“The decision to go for the death penalty should be one made by a prosecutor with a singular focus on whether or not this really is what is necessary to do justice in this case,” he said.
— Megan Guza
Read more: The synagogue shooting trial didn’t have to happen. Here’s why it did — and what it might cost
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9:25 a.m.
The trial has begun
Shortly after 9 a.m., Judge Robert Colville opened the trial. A prosecutor reminded the court that there shouldn’t be any discussion of the death penalty during opening remarks.
Jurors filed into the courtroom at about 9:15 a.m., and were sworn in a few minutes later. Judge Colville reminded jurors that their verdict would have to be unanimous, "or there would be no verdict."
During a brief summary of the case, Mr. Bowers appeared to be listening to the judge as he sat with his defense team and occasionally spoke quietly with them.
The trial will happen in multiple phases. What starts today is the guilt phase. If the jury finds Mr. Bowers guilty, they will decide in a second phase whether to sentence him to death.
— Hallie Lauer
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8:57 a.m.
Synagogue shooting cited in release of Biden antisemitism plan
WASHINGTON — Alarmed by an increase in antisemitic incidents, including the murder of 11 Pittsburgh worshippers in 2018, President Joe Biden and members of his administration on Thursday released a plan to combat the growing number of attacks on Jews.
“We must say clearly and forcefully that antisemitism and all forms of hate and violence have no place in America,” Mr. Biden said. “Silence is complicity. I will not remain silent. You shouldn’t either.”
The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism would mobilize federal and state officials, educational institutions, community and religious organizations, and the private sector to talk about the contributions of Jewish Americans, teach about the Holocaust, and come together to speak out against antisemitism and other hate.
The release of the 60-page document came as jury selection concluded in the trial of Robert Bowers, accused of gunning down 11 people at a Squirrel Hill synagogue housing three different congregations on Oct. 27, 2018.
The Pittsburgh shooting “was a turning point” in acknowledging the need to fight antisemitism, said Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, an administration special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
“If they talk about specific events, no one leaves out Pittsburgh,” Ms. Lipstadt said in an interview after the strategy was announced. “It shocked us all. It was a tragic pivotal moment in American Jewish history, which brought to light in an extreme way what hatred can do and the dangers that we face.”
“This was shockingly real,” she added. “You cannot overemphasize how important it was.”
— Jonathan D. Salant
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8:42 a.m.
What to expect today
The trial is set to begin in earnest at 9 a.m.
It will likely kick off with U.S. District Judge Robert Colville's opening instructions to the jury. The court will likely take about three breaks during the day: a mid-morning break, a lunch break from 12:30 to 1:15 p.m., and an afternoon break.
— Megan Guza
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8:32 a.m.
The defense team arrives
Defense lawyers arrived shortly after 8 a.m.
Mr. Bowers' defense team includes several federal public defenders, as well as Judy Clarke, a San Diego-based attorney who specializes in federal death penalty cases. She has represented defendants including Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph and Susan Smith.
— Megan Guza
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8:26 a.m.
Quiet outside the courthouse
It was quiet outside the courthouse to start the day. About 10 reporters were staged outside before 8 a.m.
Andrea Wedner, whose mother, Rose Mallinger, died in the shooting, went inside, accompanied by several others. A woman with her was walking a large black poodle.
A few minutes after 8:00 a.m., a police motorcycle sped from Grant Street and parked in the intersection of Grant and Seventh Avenue to direct traffic. Two motorcycles, side by side, came from Seventh, followed by a yellow school bus. The bus stopped in front of the courthouse entrance. Maggie Feinstein of the 10.27 Healing Partnership was the first to exit the bus, carrying several Whole Foods bags. About 20 people came off the bus as a police officer stood close by.
— Jordan Anderson
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7:50 a.m.
The Jewish community is on guard
Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh say a purported uptick in online hate speech has the community on guard as the start of testimony looms in the case against accused synagogue shooter Robert Bowers.
“We were not prepared for [the synagogue shooting]. We did not see that coming,” said Shawn Brokos, the community security director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
“This trial, we know what’s coming. We know what lies ahead,” Ms. Brokos said. “It’s up to us, as a Jewish community and a security community, to be as prepared as possible.”
The proactive approach comes alongside an “uptick in hate speech” online against the Jewish community. Ms. Brokos said that information comes from a system that monitors various online message boards and chat sites.
She said security leaders in the community are preparing for the possibility that white supremacist and other hate groups might show up to the courthouse during Mr. Bowers’ trial. Federal prosecutors and courthouse officials have not said whether they expect that to happen.
— Megan Guza and Hallie Lauer
Read more: The Jewish community is on guard as the synagogue shooting trial starts
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7:20 a.m.
The shooting changed 3 congregations forever
The trial will focus largely on what happened during just a couple of hours on the morning of Oct. 27, 2018.
But for the three congregations that lost members that day — Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light — there are years more to the story: The past that brought them together, a horrific day that linked them forever, and a future physically separated.
“We’re moving forward,” said Stephen Cohen, co-president of New Light. “We are dealing with a tragedy, we continue to deal with a tragedy. It affects us every day and it will affect us for the rest of our lives.”
Of the three congregations, Tree of Life is the oldest — chartered in 1865 by a group splintered off from Rodef Shalom, Pittsburgh’s oldest congregation that is based in Shadyside. Tree of Life bought buildings Downtown and in Oakland before moving to its Squirrel Hill spot at the intersection of Shady and Wilkins avenues in the 1940s.
In 1899, a group of families that fled pogroms in Romania and settled in Pittsburgh chartered New Light, which eventually grew to be one of the biggest congregations among the large Jewish population in the Hill District. In 1957, New Light moved to Squirrel Hill, buying a mansion on Beechwood Boulevard and renovating it into their new synagogue.
Just six years later, Congregation Dor Hadash formed in Pittsburgh — originally as a prayer and study group and then officially affiliated with the politically and religiously progressive Jewish Reconstructionist Movement. Dor Hadash never owned a building, meeting at the Community Day School before renting space at the Tree of Life synagogue starting in 2010.
— Anya Sostek
Read more: The synagogue shooting changed 3 congregations forever. As the trial starts, they try to move forward.
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7 a.m.
The trial comes as antisemitism is increasingly politicized in Washington
WASHINGTON — After U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar invoked the age-old canard about American Jews being loyal to a foreign country over their own, the House overwhelmingly approved a 2019 resolution condemning antisemitism.
Only 26 members voted against the resolution drafted by Ms. Omar’s fellow Democrats. The dissenters were all Republicans who wanted to go further in rebuking Ms. Omar specifically.
Today, Washington observers said, it would be hard to get that kind of near-unanimity on a basic and traditionally bipartisan position such as opposing antisemitism.
Instead, the new tack is: The other side does it, too.
”It’s extraordinary: We can ignore the antisemitism in our party but we’re going to go after the antisemitism in yours,” Pamela Nadell, director of the Jewish Studies Program at American University, said in describing the current political dynamic.
This splintering of what long had been a bipartisan consensus comes as the shooter in the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history is about to have his day in a Pittsburgh courtroom.
— Jonathan D. Salant
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6:30 a.m.
It took weeks to pick a jury
The jury — 12 jurors and six alternates — consists of 11 women and seven men. One woman is Asian. All other jurors are white.
The jury includes a nurse who has worked in an ICU, a woman who works on the business side of UPMC, a paralegal and a military veteran. At least two identified themselves as Catholic and one as Protestant. One man left the proceedings early because his pregnant wife was at the hospital waiting to be induced for labor. He did not ask to be excused from service, and he was seated on the jury.
“My faith is separate from the law,” one juror said in her initial interview with lawyers, where one’s willingness to vote for the death penalty was a significant focus of questioning.
She became juror No. 8.
The court initially sent out 1,500 summonses to residents of Allegheny County and a dozen other Western Pennsylvania counties. Lawyers questioned more than 200 of them over the course of 17 days this spring, yielding a pool of 69.
Most of those 69 returned last Thursday as prosecutors and defense lawyers completed the process. Both sides at that stage had 20 of what’s known as peremptory strikes — removing a juror from consideration without giving a reason.
— Megan Guza
Read more: Jury set for synagogue shooting trial
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5:30 a.m.
Years after the worst antisemitic attack in U.S. history, finally a trial
In a small nondescript courtroom on the fifth floor of the federal courthouse in Downtown Pittsburgh on Tuesday, a case that has loomed large in Pittsburgh for almost five years will finally begin.
Testimony will begin around 9 a.m. in the federal trial against Robert Bowers, the man accused of gunning down 11 Jewish worshippers inside a Squirrel Hill synagogue in 2018.
It remains the worst antisemitic attack on U.S. soil.
The criminal justice system ground on slowly in this case — one which has been marred by arguments and bickering among prosecutors and defense lawyers, slowed by a global pandemic, and checkered with numerous attempts to get the death penalty taken off the table.
The Oct. 27, 2018, shooting devastated both the close-knit Jewish community in Squirrel Hill and the city at large. It inextricably linked three congregations who continue the balance between never forgetting and moving forward.
— Megan Guza
Read more: With a jury seated and witnesses set to testify, the synagogue shooting trial is about to begin
First Published: May 30, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: May 30, 2023, 10:36 p.m.
