![]() “I quietly to myself said goodbye to him and followed the officers.”ħ5-year-old says he went toward the gunfireĭaniel Leger, who was wounded in the shooting, testified he and fellow congregant Dr. “I had to step over Mel to get out of the space … It was very hard to look at him laying on the floor,” Black said. “I didn’t want anyone outside the room to hear me.”Īfter a period of time, police came into the building to rescue them and they rushed out of the building and had to step past Wax. “My throat was closed, I was very quiet,” he testified. “A man was just shot right outside the door, please get the police here immediately.” “Tree of Life synagogue…shooting…man with an automatic weapon,” he said in the call, which was played in court. He called 911 and in a quiet voice told them about the shooting. Werber, 81, testified Wednesday that he tried to remain as quiet as possible while the gunman was just outside. “If I remained calm, I would not give my position away,” she said. Despite the terror, Black said she remained calm. “I saw a shadow of somebody as they entered just between the crack of the door and the jamb,” she said, saying she assumed the shadow was the shooter. Wax, an 87-year-old accountant, was among those who were killed. She said she heard the gunman shoot Wax twice, and his head fell inches from her feet. Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting trial opens with harrowing 911 call of victim's last words ![]() (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Jessie Wardarski/AP Bowers could face the death penalty if convicted of some of the 63 counts he faces which claimed the lives of worshippers from three congregations who were sharing the building, Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life. Members of Pittsburgh's Jewish community enter the Federal courthouse in Pittsburgh for the first day of trial for Robert Bowers, the suspect in the 2018 synagogue massacre on Tuesday, May 30, 2023, in Pittsburgh. “At first (the noise) was coming from upstairs and then it got louder and that indicated to me that it was closer to me, closer to where I was.” She, Melvin Wax, and Barry Werber hid in a closet behind a set of doors and remained silent as the gunshots became louder. In testimony Wednesday, a survivor of the shooting recounted how she and other congregants were ushered into a closet to hide from the gunman.Ĭarol Black, 71, the sister of victim Richard Gottfried, said she was in the downstairs sanctuary at the synagogue when she and other congregants heard several loud sounds that they eventually realized was gunfire. Survivor testifies about hiding in a closet “I thought about the history of my people, how we’ve been persecuted and hunted and slaughtered for centuries, and how all of them must have felt at the moments before their death,” he said. Myers examined the book in court and noted that there is a stamp on it reading, “Tree of Life Congregation.” He testified that during the attack he fled the chapel and called 911, and he also prayed and thought of his ancestors. Another exhibit shows police body camera video of Myers exiting the synagogue and passing a line of police officers while clutching his yarmulke on his head. One exhibit shows crime scene tape and drops of blood on the floor of one part of the synagogue. The photo of the damaged prayer book was one of a number of photo exhibits released to the public Wednesday morning, including images of the congregants present the day of the shooting and images of the synagogue after the attack. A year afterward, a 19-year-old killed one person and wounded three others at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in California – violence exemplifying the ongoing threat to American Jewry.Ī defense attorney for Robert Bowers said in opening statements they did not dispute that he was responsible for the mass killing. The mass shooting was part of a broader rise in antisemitism in recent years. ![]() Robert Bowers, 50, has pleaded not guilty to 63 charges, including obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death. That and other images were released publicly the same day several survivors of the shooting testified about their split-second actions and decisions during the attack. “One day when I’m not there, this book tells a story that needs to be told.” “It’s a witness to the horror of the day,” he testified. But Myers decided to keep this prayer book, known as a siddur. In the Jewish faith, damaged prayer books are traditionally buried as a sign of respect, he testified. The photo was entered into evidence Tuesday during testimony by Jeffrey Myers, the rabbi of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. ![]() A powerful image of a Jewish prayer book damaged with a bullet hole was released as evidence Wednesday in the death penalty trial of the man accused of killing 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.
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