PITTSBURGH (AP) — The 11 people killed in the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh included a married couple, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, and two brothers, Cecil and David Rosenthal.
The Pittsburgh- Allegheny County medical examiners’ office released the victims’ names Sunday. David Rosenthal was the youngest at 54. The eldest was 97-year-old Rose Mallinger.
The dead also included Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Jerry Rabinowitz, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger.
Fellow members of the New Light Congregation say Wax was a pillar of the congregation, filling many roles there. Friend Myron Snider says Wax was a retired accountant who was unfailingly generous.
Wax was in his late 80s.
Authorities say gunman Robert Bowers made statements about genocide and killing Jewish people. Bowers is being treated for gunshot wounds and is due in court Monday.
9:30 a.m.
Authorities have released the names of the 11 people killed by a gunman during worship services in a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Officials said at a news conference Sunday that the victims ranged in age from 54 to 97 and included brothers and a husband and wife.
Authorities say gunman Robert Bowers made statements about genocide and killing Jewish people. Officials previously said three women and eight men were killed.
Bowers has been arrested and is being treated for gunshot wounds at a hospital.
The U.S. attorney’s office has charged Bowers with 29 federal counts. Bowers is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday. State authorities have also leveled charges.
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8 a.m.
German leaders are mourning the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and stressing the need to push back against anti-Semitism.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman quoted Merkel on Twitter as offering her condolences and saying that “all of us must confront anti-Semitism with determination — everywhere.”
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier voiced his dismay at the attack, which left 11 dead, in a condolence message to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Steinmeier wrote that “this abhorrent crime reminds us all to do what is in our power to advocate against hatred and violence, against anti-Semitism and exclusion, and to counter with determination those who incite them.”
Pope Francis is grieving with Pittsburgh’s Jewish community following the massacre at a synagogue, denouncing the “inhuman act of violence” and praying for an end to the “flames of hatred” that fueled it.
Francis led prayers for Pittsburgh on Sunday in St. Peter’s Square, a day after a gunman who had expressed hatred of Jews opened fire in the synagogue during Sabbath services, killing 11 people.
Francis prayed for the dead, injured and their families and said: “In reality, all of us are wounded by this inhuman act of violence.” He prayed for God “to help us to extinguish the flames of hatred that develop in our societies, reinforcing the sense of humanity, respect for life and civil and moral values.”
Francis has frequently spoken out against religiously inspired violence and has denounced the easy availability of guns thanks to weapons manufacturers, whom he has called “merchants of death.”
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7 a.m.
Police say the suspect in the deadly mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue told officers that Jews were committing genocide and that he wanted them all to die.
Pittsburgh police said in an arrest affidavit made public early Sunday that Robert Gregory Bowers killed eight men and three women in the Tree of Life Synagogue before a tactical police team tracked him down and shot him.
A Pittsburgh police officer says in the warrant that Bowers was being treated for his injuries when he said Jews were “committing genocide to his people.”
Bowers is charged with 11 counts of criminal homicide, six counts of aggravated assault and 13 counts of ethnic intimidation.
The police affidavit says calls began coming in to 911 just before 10 a.m. Saturday, reporting “they were being attacked.”
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12:30 a.m.
A gunman who expressed hatred of Jews exploited a vulnerability common in so many houses of worship across the country — doors that are unlocked for worship — to target a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Officials say Robert Bowers was armed with a rifle and three handguns when he walked inside the Tree of Life synagogue during Sabbath services Saturday morning and opened fire, killing 11 people and wounding six in what is believed to be the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.
Police swarmed the building and traded gunfire with the gunman, who was shot multiple times but survived.
Four police officers are among the wounded.
Bowers faces 29 federal counts, including weapons offenses and hate crimes.
Law enforcement officials plan to discuss the massacre at a news conference Sunday morning.
