Synagogue shooting: gunman lived like a ‘ghost’
The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers lived a double life of an amiable loner in person but a vicious anti-Semite online.
The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers lived a double life of an amiable loner in person but a vicious anti-Semite online, fooling all who knew him that he was capable of mass murder.
As vigils were held across the US yesterday for the 11 people who Bowers murdered in the worst Jewish massacre on US soil, questions were asked about why the killer was so filled with hate and why no one noticed it earlier.
Neighbours and friends painted a picture of the 46-year-old as a virtual ghost who kept to himself, rarely talking to others and giving no outward indication that he was an extreme anti-Semite.
He went by the online moniker of One Dingo but it is not clear if this reflected any connection with Australia. He had no criminal history but appeared to have a secret obsession with firearms, having 21 registered guns.
“(He was) just like a 50-year-old dude,” neighbour Chris Hall said. “He didn’t have any bumper sticker that was like ‘Hey, this is my world view’. There was no clues. Nothing.”
Another neighbour said she forgot his name because he was such a nondescript presence, while childhood friend Jim Brinsky told The New York Times “he was in his own little world … he was pretty much a ghost”.
But online, Bowers, a truck driver, was a savagely bigoted anti- Semite, hostile towards Jews and also towards immigrants.
Shortly before his murderous rampage at the Tree of Life Synagogue during the Shabbat — the holiest day of the Jewish week — he railed against the large caravan of migrants walking towards the US border. He claimed they would enter the US and slaughter innocent civilians. Bowers linked this issue with the Jewish non-profit group HIAS. “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in,” he wrote hours before he stormed into the Tree of Life Synagogue armed with two Glock pistols and an AR-15 assault-style rifle.
Bowers moved from room to room, yelling that “Jews must die” and shooting anyone he saw.
It was revealed yesterday that his victims ranged from the ages of 54 to 97. They included a couple, Sylvan and Bernice Simon, who were both in their 80s, and 97-year-old Rose Mallinger who had barely missed a service for decades. Those killed included two brothers, Cecil and David Rosenthal, 59 and 54 respectively, who had attended the Tree of Life since they were young boys. The brothers were greeting people and handing out prayer books when they were gunned down.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto called the attack the “darkest day of Pittsburgh’s history”.
“We know that we as a society are better than this,” he said. “We know that hatred will never win out, that those that try to divide us because of the way we pray, or where our families are from around the world, will lose.”
Bowers, who is in a “fair” condition in hospital, has been charged with 29 federal counts, including hate-crime and firearm offences, that carry the death penalty.
Joseph Charney, 90, recounted the 20-minute rampage. “I saw a big gun — I only looked at him for a couple of seconds, and I put two and two together … as soon as I realised what it was, it was get out of there or die,” he told The New York Times. Moments later, “I looked up and there were all these dead bodies.”
Bowers got into a gunfight with police officers who answered the 911 calls made at 9.54am on Saturday (12.54am Sunday AEST).
“We’re under fire, we’re under fire,” one officer radioed. “He’s got an automatic weapon, he’s firing at us from the synagogue.”
Bowers shot four police officers and was hit several times.
Eventually, a SWAT team cornered Bowers on the third floor where he had barricaded himself in and he came crawling out on his hands and knees, muttering about killing Jews.
“Suspect’s talking about, uh, all these Jews need to die,” an officer radioed. “The suspect keeps telling about killing Jews, he doesn’t want any of them to live.”
Bowers was due to face court early today.
Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia
Women egged in anti-Semitic attack at Bondi Beach
Three men allegedly set upon a number of women on Saturday night in Sydney's east, throwing eggs at them, with police believing they were targeted because of the clothes they were wearing.
‘Hunted down and locked up’: PM condemns latest anti-Semitic attack
Anthony Albanese has condemned a spate of anti-Semitic hate crimes which has culminated in the discovery of a caravan packed with explosives outside Sydney, declaring the perpetrators 'would not succeed' creating hate and division.