Mourners hold candles as they gather for a vigil in the aftermath of a deadly shooting at the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh on Saturday. | Matt Rourke/AP Photo Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting Trump: 'This was an anti-Semitic attack at its worst' The president publicly denounces America's worst synagogue shooting that killed 11 and left 7 injured — including four law enforcement officers.

President Donald Trump repeatedly denounced hate-based violence Saturday in public remarks delivered in the aftermath of a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 people dead on the Jewish Sabbath.

At an evening rally in southern Illinois, the president said the “monstrous” attacks “require all of us working together to extract the hateful poison of anti-Semitism from our world. This was an anti-Semitic attack at its worst. The scourge of anti-Semitism cannot be ignored, cannot be tolerated, and it cannot be allowed to continue.


“It must be confronted and condemned everywhere it rears its ugly head. We must stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters to defeat anti-Semitism and vanquish the forces of hate.”

During an earlier address to the Future Farmers of America convention in Indianapolis, the president had urged Americans to “rise above the hate, move past our divisions and embrace our common destiny.”

The president's public remarks — which included a pledge “to fight for a future of justice, safety, tolerance, morality, dignity and love” — struck a unifying tone after he was criticized for his recent public statements on a series of mailed bombs that targeted several high-profile Democrats.





President Donald Trump speaks to reporters about the shooting as he arrives at Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base on Saturday. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo



Immediately after the attack at the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s heavily Jewish Squirrel Hill neighborhood — the deadliest synagogue attack in American history — Trump had suggested the extent of the violence could have been mitigated by armed guards inside the synagogue and advocated capital punishment as the penalty for such crimes.

“This is a dispute that will always exist, I suspect,” Trump said. “But if they had some kind of a protection inside the temple, maybe it could have been a very much different situation.”

The suspected gunman, Robert Bowers, 46, a Pennsylvania resident, was charged Saturday evening with 29 federal crimes, including 11 counts of murder.

Bowers had repeatedly shared online anti-Semitic views, including a conspiracy theory that Jews and HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit organization offering aid to refugees, were helping transport migrants across Central America in the same caravans the president has increasingly attacked at campaign rallies in the final weeks before the midterm elections.

Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich confirmed at a news conference Saturday afternoon that the shooting resulted in 11 deaths and seven injuries — including four injured law enforcement officers and the suspect.

At an earlier press conference, Hissrich said that while the officers’ injuries “at this time are non-life-threatening, the other individuals are critical and serious in nature.” The victims were transported to three trauma centers in the city, he said. The suspected shooter was also taken to a hospital.

Police rapid response team members respond to the site of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue on Saturday. | Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

With the assistance of local, county and state law enforcement, the FBI is investigating the shooting as a hate crime, Hissrich said.

“It’s a very horrific crime scene,” he added. “It’s one of the worst that I’ve seen. And I’ve been on some plane crashes. It’s very bad.”

“This is shocking,” Rich Fitzgerald, the county executive of Allegheny County, told reporters. “These are our friends, these are our neighbors, and when this list of victims comes out, it’s going to be people that we know.”

Fitzgerald added: “When you say, ‘Hits close to home,’ that doesn’t even begin to say it.”

Speaking at Saturday afternoon’s news conference, Bob Jones, the special agent heading up the investigation into the shooting, described the synagogue after the massacre as “the most horrific crime scene I’ve seen in 22 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

“Members of the Tree of Life Synagogue conducting a peaceful service in their place of worship were brutally murdered by a gunman targeting them simply because of their faith,” Jones said.

Scott Brady, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, said at the news conference that the gunman’s actions “represent the worst of humanity,” adding: “Please know that justice in this case will be swift and it will be severe.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions also said in a statement Saturday that the Justice Department “will file hate crimes and other criminal charges” against Bowers, “including charges that could lead to the death penalty.”

“The Department of Justice will continue to support our state and local partners, and we will continue to bring the full force of the law against anyone who would violate the civil rights of the American people,” Sessions said.

People gather on a corner near the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday. | Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo



As events developed, Trump had tweeted: “Watching the events unfolding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Law enforcement on the scene. People in Squirrel Hill area should remain sheltered. Looks like multiple fatalities. Beware of active shooter. God Bless All!”

Vice President Mike Pence wrote on Twitter that he was monitoring reports of the shooting. “Praying for the fallen, the injured, all the families impacted, and our courageous first responders. God bless them all.”

Appearing later Saturday at an event in Las Vegas, Pence said that “there is no place in America for violence or anti-Semitism, and this evil must end.”

Ivanka Trump — who, along with her husband, White House adviser Jared Kushner, is Jewish — tweeted in response to the shooting that “America is stronger than the acts of a depraved bigot and anti-semite.”

“All good Americans stand with the Jewish people to oppose acts of terror & share the horror, disgust & outrage over the massacre in Pittsburgh,” the president’s daughter wrote online. “We must unite against hatred & evil.”

First lady Melania Trump also tweeted: “My heart breaks over the news out of #Pittsburgh. The violence needs to stop. May God bless, guide & unite the United States of America.”

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on Saturday condemned the attack, and in a statement said it “sends its deepest sympathies to the victims and families of those who were callously murdered.”

The museum also said it “reminds all Americans of the dangers of unchecked hatred and antisemitism which must be confronted wherever they appear and calls on all Americans to actively work to promote social solidarity and respect the dignity of all individuals.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement that the organization believed Saturday’s shooting to be “the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.”

“It is simply unconscionable for Jews to be targeted during worship on a Sabbath morning, and unthinkable that it would happen in the United States of America in this day and age,” he said.

Jeff Finkelstein, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, told reporters Saturday that the results of a recent community study showed that more than half of the Jewish community of Greater Pittsburgh lives in or around Squirrel Hill.

“I’m just sad. I don’t know what to tell you,” Finkelstein said. “I just — my heart goes out to all these families. This should not be happening, period. It should not be happening in a synagogue. It should not be happening in our neighborhood here in Squirrel Hill,” according to a CNN report.