USA: Pittsburgh Shooting Left 11 Dead

 
On Saturday Eleven people were killed and six wounded in a shooting at a synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighbourhood of Pittsburgh. Donald Trump called the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue “a wicked act of mass murder” and decried antisemitism in all forms. He staged a campaign rally in Illinois as scheduled. The suspected gunman was identified as Robert Bowers, a Pittsburgh resident who is reportedly 46 years old. He was taken to hospital in the city and reported to be in fair condition.
Federal prosecutors have charged Bowers with 29 charges, including obstructing the exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death, 11 counts of using a firearm to commit murder, weapons offences and seriously injuring police officers. The FBI was investigating the shooting as a federal hate crime.
The chief federal prosecutor in western Pennsylvania Scott Brady said “Please know that justice, in this case, will be swift and it will be severe, characterizing the slaughter as a “terrible and unspeakable act of hate”. The identities of the dead were not immediately released but Wendell Hissrich, Pittsburgh’s public safety director, told an afternoon news conference no children were killed. The toll of wounded did not include the suspect, he added.
FBI special agent in charge Bob Jones said the suspect was leaving the synagogue when he was engaged by the officers, having carried out the shootings inside. He retreated into the building, where two officers were injured before the suspect’s surrender. the suspect had an assault rifle and three handguns. He could not confirm all were used. Bowers was not previously known to law enforcement, Jones said, adding that though people had been “brutally murdered by a gunman targeting them simply because of their faith”, the gunman’s full motive was not yet known.
Trump expressed sympathy for the victims of the event then unfolding in Pennsylvania. In a response to the question related to gun laws reform to prevent such incidents, the president said: “If they had protection inside the results would have been far better. If they had some kind of protection inside the temple, maybe it would have been a much different situation, people who carried out mass shootings were “wackos” and said he thought the death penalty should be brought “into vogue” It’s a terrible, terrible thing what’s going on with hate in our country, frankly,” the president said, “and all over the world. And something has to be done.”
> Alma Siddiqua