On October 27th As believers gathered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, a gunman opened fire, killing 11 people.
The federal death sentence against suspected shooter Robert G. Bowers, 50, began Tuesday with an audio recording of an 911 call made by one of the victims, Bernice Simon, following the shooting of her husband, Sylvan Simon. Shannon Basa-Sabol, the operator, was the prosecution’s first witness and testified that she answered Simon’s call from the synagogue that day, the Washington Post reports.
“Tree of Life, we are under attack,” Simon tells the dispatcher in the recording. “My husband is bleeding. My husband’s shot. Oh my God.”
“I’m scared to death,” Simon added in the call. Shots and screams could be heard in the background.
“Bernice, are you still with me?” Basa-Sabol asked during the call. There was no answer. Neither Simon, 84, nor her husband Sylvan, 86, survived.
Bowers has pleaded not guilty to 63 counts, including 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death and 11 counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs, resulting in death. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
The opening statements and testimonies on what officials are calling the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history come after a weeks-long jury selection process.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo Song told the jury that Bowers used multiple weapons, including an AR-15 assault rifle, when he entered the synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood during Saturday morning’s service.
Song explained that after officers arrested Bowers and asked why he did it, the suspect “blurred out, ‘All Jews must die.'” “Jews are killing our children.” “Jews are bringing in immigrants, killing our people, and committing genocide .” And: ‘Jews are the children of Satan.’”
Bowers’ attorney Judy Clarke did not deny that he was the shooter. Clarke told the jury that “there is no disagreement, no dispute and there will be no doubt as to who shot the 11 parishioners” and that they will focus on their client’s “motive and intent” in the next phase of the trial become. Prosecutors turned down Clarke’s offer to have Bowers plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence; Clarke has also filed motions alleging Bowers has schizophrenia and epilepsy.
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Clarke has defended several mass murderers in her career, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Atlanta Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, who are serving life sentences.
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The rabbi and cantor of the Tree of Life congregation, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, ended the first day of testimony by recounting the morning’s events, according to the Pittsburg Post-Gazette. “I expected that I would die, and at first I tried to decide: ‘Do I hang up the phone and call my wife or do I make a video?'” Rabbi Myers said. “I figured if that was the end I wouldn’t leave her like this to hear that. So I decided to keep calling 911.”
“I thought about the history of my people, how we were persecuted and hunted and slaughtered for centuries and how they all must have felt in the moments before they died and what they did?” he continued. “And what they did was they recited Deuteronomy, chapter six, verse four…” I recited that.”
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https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/tree-of-life-synagogue-mass-shooting-trial-opening-statements-1234744282/