PITTSBURGH: The suspected gunman who killed 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the most deadly attack ever on the Jewish community in the US likely acted alone, officials said.
The suspected gunman yelling stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue during services on Saturday, killing 11 worshippers and wounding six other people including four police officers, before he was arrested.
There was no indication that the suspect, 46-year-old Robert Bowers of Pittsburgh, was working with anyone else, US Attorney Scott Brady said at a news conference.
“This was an attack upon our neighbours and our friends and one that we felt very deeply,” Brady said.
The Tree of Life synagogue in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighbourhood, a heavily Jewish area, was holding a Shabbat religious service when the gunman burst in.
The mass shooting prompted security alerts at houses of worship around the country and condemnation from politicians and religious leaders.
It followed a spate of pipe bombs found mailed in recent days to prominent political figures, mostly Democrats including former US president Barack Obama, ahead of 6 November congressional elections.
“We’ll get through this darkest day of Pittsburgh history by working together,” the city’s mayor, Bill Peduto, told reporters.
Bowers had made many anti-Semitic posts online, including one early on Saturday. In another, he slammed Trump for doing nothing to stop an “infestation” of the United States by Jews.
US Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat who is Jewish, said the country needs to combat a climate of hatred and division that he said Trump helped foster.
“Honestly I think this president’s whole modus operandi is to divide us. He gets up in the morning with new and inventive ways to divide us,” Schiff said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ programme.
Trump called the shooting an act of pure evil and called on Americans to rise above hatred.
Bowers surrendered after a shootout with a SWAT team. — Reuters
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