Perpetrator of shooting that killed 11 Jews in the US found guilty and awaits possible death penalty

First modification: 06/17/2023 – 00:28

The author of the deadliest attack against Jews in the United States was found guilty this Friday of 63 counts, including murder, obstruction of the free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death or hatred resulting in death.

The jury, which deliberated for about five hours over two days, must now decide whether to sentence him to death or life imprisonment. The penalty phase, scheduled to start on June 26, should last a few weeks.

On October 27, 2018, Robert Bowers, now 50, robbed the Tree of Life synagogue in the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin (USA). Armed with an AR-15 rifle and other weapons, he fired indiscriminately, shouting: “All Jews must die.” He killed 11 people and wounded 7 others, including five police officers who responded to the shooting.

The act became the deadliest attack against Jews in the United States.

Bowers’ lawyers had conceded the shooter’s guilt at the start of the trial, leaving little doubt about the conclusion of the trial. The judge ruled “guilty” dozens of times, but Bowers barely reacted, as has often happened throughout the trial.

hate crime

According to prosecutors, Bowers targeted his victims based on their religion. They presented evidence of his deep animosity toward Jews and immigrants. Bowers posted anti-Semitic and white supremacist content on Gab, a platform popular with the far right.

Thus, just before the shooting, he published a text criticizing the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). “HIAS likes to bring in invaders who kill our people. I can’t sit back and watch that happen. Fuck it, I’m going in.”

The man also praised Hitler and the Holocaust and had told police that “all these Jews have to die,” prosecutor Mary Hahn said.

Hahn asked the jury to “hold this defendant accountable…and hold him accountable for those who cannot testify.”

For her part, Carole Zawatsky, executive director of the Congregation of the Tree of Life, said Friday that she hoped the verdict would provide “some level of comfort and help ease the pain, even if very slightly” for the victims and their families. .

During the days of testimonies, the survivors narrated the terror they felt during the attack. One woman told how she shot him in the arm and how she later discovered her mother dead next to her.

The Tree of Life congregation is now working to renovate the synagogue, which closed after the shooting.

“I am grateful to God for bringing us here,” Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life, who survived the bombing, said in a written statement. “And I’m grateful to law enforcement who ran into danger to rescue me, and to the federal prosecutor who stood up in court to defend my right to pray.”

Antisemitism is on the rise in America, as taught the latest report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In 2022, the organization reported 3,697 anti-Semitic incidents across the United States, an increase of 36% over 2021 and the highest number since the ADL began tracking anti-Semitic incidents in 1979.

With AP and local media