Prosecutor recounts a deadly day of worship in a Pittsburgh synagogue

The federal trial of the gunman who killed 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in the country’s history, Tuesday began with a minute-by-minute description of how the carnage unfolded on a chilly October morning in 2018.

Soo C. Song, one of the lead prosecutors, began her opening statement by describing how each of the victims arrived at the synagogue on October 27, “in the sanctuary and refuge of their holy place.” The 22 people in the synagogue that morning, half of whom were to be killed, were from three different congregations: Tree of Life, New Light, and Dor Hadash. Ms. Song described how they greeted other believers at the door, chatted casually in the kitchen, and sat in the pews to pray.

She then spoke of the defendant, Robert Bowers, describing his flurry of hate-filled social media posts and how, at the same time as the faithful gathered for services, he was “making his own preparations to destroy, kill and destroy” . traffic jam.”

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Mr Bowers, 50. This stage of the trial will be in two parts. The first, which began Tuesday, involves guilt; if Mr. Bowers is found guilty, there will be a process to determine whether he will receive a death sentence.

The facts surrounding the shooting are largely undisputed, so the trial will essentially be a months-long assessment of whether the defendant should be executed. Mr. Bowers’ lawyers have offered to settle the case with a plea of ​​guilty on all counts in exchange for a life sentence without the possibility of parole, but federal prosecutors have rejected this offer.

After Ms. Song spoke for about 40 minutes, Judy Clarke, a lawyer with a long track record of defending people accused of capital crimes, gave the opening statement to the defense.

Mrs Clarke opened by saying there was “no disagreement” that Mr Bowers was the person who killed the 11 congregants that morning, calling the killings an incomprehensible tragedy. She also acknowledged that Mr Bowers had made “objectionable” comments online.

But she said that unlike a state trial, which could ask a “straightforward” question of whether a defendant had committed murder, many of the 63 charges in the federal trial required a determination of motive and intent.

And while Mr Bowers had told police at the scene of the shooting that he committed the killings because he believed Jews were “killing our people”, Ms Clarke argued that such statements were signs of his “irrational motive and his misguided intentions. ”

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville, in rulings on defense and government motions, has limited what can be discussed in the guilt phase of the trial. Ms Clarke said much of what the defense team had planned to present about Mr Bowers’ background would not be addressed in this part of the trial. His lawyers have said in motions that he suffers from schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

In the government’s opening statement, Ms Song described how Mr Bowers, armed with a semi-automatic rifle and three handguns, “went methodically through the synagogue to find the Jews he so hated and to shoot and kill them.” She emphasized that he did not spray the chapels with gunfire, but shot six of his eleven victims in the head, two at very close range.

Ms. Song warned the jury that prosecutors would present gruesome evidence and descriptions of the extent of the violence that day, but she said such details were the only way to show “the depths of the defendant’s malice and hatred”.

Testimonies in the trial began after the opening statements were completed. Prosecutors played back recordings of two 911 calls during the shooting by Bernice Simon, 84. She was killed along with her husband Sylvan in the same chapel where they had been married decades earlier.

“We’re under attack,” she heard crying into the phone, to the sound of gunshots in the background. ‘My husband is bleeding! My husband was shot!

The operator told Mrs. Simon to cover her husband with a sweater and check his pulse. Then the shooter reappeared and the dispatcher told Ms. Simon to stop talking. The recording of the conversation erupted in an explosion of noise. Then it went quiet.

“Keep quiet for me, Bernice,” the dispatcher said without answer. “Are you still with me?”

Jon Moss contributed reporting.