Global Courant
A gunman who killed 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue went on a rampage on social media about his hatred of Jewish people before the 2018 attack, according to evidence filed Tuesday at his federal death penalty trial.
Prosecutors are trying to show that Robert Bowers was motivated by extreme hostility toward Jews when he opened fire on the Tree of Life Synagogue during Sabbath services, committing the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.
The 50-year-old truck driver is charged with 63 criminal counts, including hate crimes resulting in death and obstructing the free exercise of religion resulting in death. Some charges carry a possible death sentence.
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With the trial in its third week, the testimony focused on Bowers’ use of Gab – a social media platform popular with the far right – to advance his anti-Semitic views.
A damaged prayer book resides at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh following a 2018 shooting that killed 11 people. The perpetrator, Robert Bowers, allegedly used social media to post anti-Semitic tirades and make broad, violent threats against Jews. (U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania via AP)
Bowers’ Gab profile read, “Jews are the children of Satan,” and he posted, liked or shared a stream of vehemently anti-Semitic content, according to dozens of samples provided to the jury Monday and Tuesday. Bowers called Jews “public enemy number one,” according to a post read by an FBI agent, spoke approvingly of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi extermination of Jews, and shared an image that read “the only good Jew is a dead Jew “.
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On the morning of the attack, Bowers posted about HIAS, a Jewish agency that helps refugees resettle in the United States. Dor Hadash, one of three municipalities sharing the Tree of Life building, partnered with HIAS.
“HIAS likes to bring in intruders who kill our people. I can’t stand by and watch my people get slaughtered. Fuck your optics, I’m going in,” Bowers posted.
Bowers’ lawyers are trying to spare his life and have admitted he was the shooter, but are trying to question motive. The defense has suggested that he was not acting out of religious hatred, but rather out of a delusion that Jews facilitated genocide by helping immigrants come to the US.
Global Courant
Survivors have previously testified about the terror they felt that day when Bowers burst into the synagogue and shot everyone he could find, while police officers testified about exchanging gunfire with Bowers, who surrendered after being shot three times. Seven people were injured in the disaster, including five police officers.
