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Thread: Robert Gregory Bowers - Federal Death Row

  1. #61
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    Judge: Synagogue massacre suspect can face death penalty

    The Associated Press

    Bowers’ attorneys already offered a guilty plea in return for a life sentence without parole, but prosecutors refused and are seeking the death penalty, a move most of the victims’ families support. Most of the juror questioning by Bowers’ attorneys has focused on jurors’ views on the death penalty.

    In a legal filing last month, Bowers’ lawyers argued the Justice Department lacks “a discernible, principled basis” for seeking death against Bowers but not for defendants in comparable cases. The defense also objected to the procedure by which the government considered Bowers’ request to reconsider its pursuit of capital punishment.

    Colville agreed with the Justice Department’s argument that Bowers failed to account for the differences between his case and the other cases for which the government did not seek the death penalty.

    The synagogue massacre case has already spanned two presidencies.

    Republican President Donald Trump, who was in office at the time, declared the killer should “suffer the ultimate price” and that the death penalty should be brought back “into vogue.” Federal executions resumed during Trump’s presidency after a 17-year hiatus, and 13 federal inmates were put to death during his last six months in office.

    Democrat Joe Biden indicated during the 2020 campaign he would work to end the federal death penalty, but critics say he has done nothing to make that happen. The Justice Department put in place a moratorium in order to study current policies and procedures. However, that has not prevented federal prosecutors from pursuing a death sentence for Bowers.

    https://apnews.com/article/pittsburg...caf0df393e93a9

  2. #62
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    Gunman in Pittsburgh synagogue massacre planned attack, defense acknowledges as trial gets underway

    By PETER SMITH
    The Associated Press

    PITTSBURGH - A trial for the man charged in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history opened Tuesday with his own lawyer acknowledging he planned the 2018 massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue and made hateful statements about Jewish people.

    Robert Bowers went to Tree of Life synagogue and “shot every person he saw,” defense attorney Judy Clarke acknowledged in her opening statement.

    Bowers, 50, could face the death penalty if convicted of some of the 63 counts he faces in the Oct. 27, 2018, attack, which claimed the lives of 11 worshippers from three congregations who shared the building. Charges include 11 counts each of obstruction of free exercise of religion resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death.

    In her opening statement, Clarke questioned whether Bowers was acting out of hatred, or an irrational belief that he needed to kill Jews to save others from the genocide he claimed they were enabling by helping immigrants come into the U.S.

    “He had what to us is this unthinkable, nonsensical, irrational thought that by killing Jews he would attain his goal,” Clarke said, adding: “There is no making sense of this senseless act. Mr. Bowers caused extraordinary harm to many, many people.”

    In their own statement to the jury, prosecutors described how Bowers barged into the synagogue and shot every worshipper he could find.

    “The depths of the defendant’s malice and hate can only be proven in the broken bodies” of the victims and “his hateful words,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo C. Song said.

    Some of the survivors dabbed tears during Song's presentation, while Bowers, seated at the defense table, showed no reaction.

    Twelve jurors and six alternates — chosen Thursday after more than 200 candidates were questioned over a month — are hearing the case. They include 11 women and seven men.

    Members of the three congregations arrived at the courthouse in a school bus and entered together. The atmosphere in the large, wood-paneled courtroom was grim and somber as the gallery filled with media, survivors and family members,

    Prosecutors have said Bowers made antisemitic comments at the scene of the attack and online.

    As an indication that the guilt-or-innocence phase of the trial seemed almost a foregone conclusion, Bowers' lawyers spent little time during jury selection asking how potential jurors would come to a verdict.

    Instead, they focused on the penalty phase and how jurors would decide whether to impose the death penalty in a case of a man charged with hate-motivated killings in a house of worship. The defense probed whether potential jurors could consider factors such as mental illness or a difficult childhood. Bowers’ attorneys recently said he has schizophrenia and brain impairments.

    The families of those killed are divided over whether the government should pursue the death penalty, but most have voiced support for it.

    The trial is taking place in the downtown Pittsburgh courthouse of the U.S. District Court for Western Pennsylvania, presided over by Judge Robert Colville, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.

    Prosecutors have said Bowers made incriminating statements to investigators and left an online trail of antisemitic statements that they say shows the attack was motivated by religious hatred. Police shot Bowers three times before he surrendered.

    Prosecutors began presenting their case Tuesday by playing an initial 911 call from Bernice Simon, who reported “we’re being attacked!” at the synagogue and that her husband, Sylvan, had been shot.

    Shannon Basa-Sabol, the dispatcher who took that call, testified she advised Bernice Simon to find the wound and stanch the bleeding. Then the dispatcher heard additional gunfire and screaming as Bernice, too, was shot. The couple were among the victims.

    “Bernice, are you still with me?” Basa-Sabol asked in an audio recording played for the jury, There was no answer.

    Bowers also injured seven people, including five police officers who responded to the scene, investigators said.

    In a filing earlier this year, prosecutors said Bowers “harbored deep, murderous animosity towards all Jewish people.” They said he also expressed hatred for HIAS, founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a nonprofit humanitarian group that helps refugees and asylum seekers.

    Prosecutors wrote in a court filing that Bowers had nearly 400 followers on his Gab social media account “to whom he promoted his antisemitic views and calls to violence against Jews.”

    The three congregations have spoken out against antisemitism and other forms of bigotry since the shootings. The Tree of Life Congregation also is working with partners on plans to overhaul its current structure, which still stands but has been closed since the shootings, by creating a complex to house a sanctuary, museum, memorial and center for fighting antisemitism.

    The death penalty trial is proceeding three years after now-President Joe Biden said during his 2020 campaign that he would work to end capital punishment at the federal level and in states that still use it. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, has temporarily paused executions to review policies and procedures, but federal prosecutors continue to vigorously work to uphold death sentences that have been issued and, in some cases, to pursue new death sentences at trial.

    https://www.wtae.com/amp/article/pit...ments/44030890
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    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    The judge is seriously allowing that defense? Sounds like he is setting himself up for IAC claim

  4. #64
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    Bowers' guilt is not in doubt so, according to his attorneys, they will attempt to avoid the death penalty by claiming mental illness.
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

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  5. #65
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    It's the same strategy Judy Clarke always takes when her cases go to trial. As far as I know, she's never represented anyone whose guilt was in doubt.

  6. #66
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    Tree of Life religious teacher navigated labyrinthine synagogue building to warn others, then escape

    By Oliver Morrison
    90.5 WESA

    When Stephen Weiss began serving as the ritual director at the Tree of Life synagogue in 1989, he said the synagogue had so many families that they would have to run two services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The main sanctuary, which seats 1,200 people, wouldn't accommodate everyone in a single service, Weiss testified in federal court in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

    But on October 27, 2018, there were only 12 people in the 225 seats inside the Pervin Chapel, where the congregation worshiped in later years as it shrank.

    On that day, an armed man walked into the Tree of Life synagogue and shot and killed 11 Jewish worshipers and injured six people, including four police officers. Robert Bowers has been charged with 63 federal counts, including 11 counts of a hate crime that resulted in death. Bowers has attempted to plead guilty to the charges in exchange for a sentence of life in prison but prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

    The original Tree of Life Synagogue was built in the 1950s and additions were made in the 1960s. That meant the synagogue itself was labyrinthine, as old entrances were transformed into new conference rooms, and hallways often led to unexpected places. The prosecutors created a 3D-model replica of the building, with removable parts, which they have been using to help the jury keep track of all the different crime scenes and escape routes inside.

    Weiss testified that, aside from himself, only the children who attended religious school at the synagogue really understood the many different passageways because they would play inside them.

    Those children — about 25 were enrolled in 2018, according to previous testimony — would've been at the synagogue on October 27, 2018, except for the fact that the classes took off one Saturday every month, which just so happened to be the day of the shooting.

    When the shooter entered, Weiss was inside helping to lead services, in part because the congregation needed 10 adult worshippers to carry out certain parts of the service. When the loud noises first started, two other worshipers — Cecil Rosenthal and Irving Younger, who served as ushers in the back — had already stepped out of the chapel to see what was happening, Weiss said, leaving only 10 people inside. So Weiss stayed until the Rabbi's prayer had finished.

    When the prayer ended, Weiss stepped out and saw shell casings and then quickly darted back into the chapel. The rabbi at that point told everyone to seek cover. But Weiss said he had taken an active shooter training earlier that year and remembered being taught he wasn't supposed to hide where he could still be seen. So instead he ran.

    As he made his escape, he stopped to go down a little-known set of steps to warn members of the New Light congregation downstairs. He bumped into Rabbi Jonathan Perlman and saw Melvin Wax, 87 and hard of hearing, trying to open the door to the closet he was hiding in.

    "I basically said I hope you stay out of sight, there is a shooting," Weiss testified. Then, seconds later, he ran back upstairs and eventually outside to safety.

    https://www.wesa.fm/courts-justice/2...-before-escape
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  7. #67
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    Pathologist testifies that victims in synagogue shooting shot multiple times

    Autopsies revealed several victims were shot at close range

    By Harrison Hamm
    The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

    Day six of the federal death penalty trial for the man accused of killing 11 Jews in the Tree of Life building focused on the wounds received by his victims. Autopsies revealed that he shot his victims multiple times and at close range.

    Forensic pathologist Ashton Ennis, who examined four of the victims on the day after the 2018 shooting, testified on the manner in which four victims were shot: Cecil Rosenthal, Irving Younger, Daniel Stein and Melvin Wax.

    Prosecutors are arguing that the defendant receive the federal death penalty, and that his motivation for the crime was his hatred for Jewish people.

    U.S. District Judge Robert Colville has already ruled that graphic photos are relevant to the trial and has allowed them to be presented to a jury. He cautioned jurors that their eventual ruling should not be based on “passion or prejudice” before prosecutors displayed the images.

    Ennis’ testimony revealed that Wax, 88, died from a gunshot to the chest defined as a “contact wound,” meaning that the gun was pressed against him when the defendant fired. Like the other victims that Ennis examined, Wax suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

    The defendant used an AR-15 rifle, a type of gun that causes increased damage to victims. Ennis’ autopsies revealed that the three of the four victims that he examined were shot in the head. Only one, Rosenthal, was shot from multiple yards away.

    Defense lawyers are not arguing that he didn’t do it, only that he should be spared the death penalty.

    Previous testimony has focused on the emergency response teams, including police and SWAT teams, that engaged in a shootout with the defendant after the murders were committed.

    The trial on Tuesday afternoon stayed focused on forensics, with another forensic pathologist, Baiyang Xu, M.D., testifying about his autopsies of four other victims. Two, Rose Mallinger and Jerry Rabinowitz, suffered devastating head wounds.

    Xu said that Mallinger, 97 when she was killed, was in great health at the time of her death, with no heart trouble.

    https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrae...ultiple-times/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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  8. #68
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    2nd week of Pittsburgh synagogue attack trial wraps up with testimony from police, FBI

    By Paula Reed Ward and Renatta Signorini
    triblive.com

    The tourniquet wasn’t working.

    In the minutes after Pittsburgh SWAT Officer Anthony Burke was shot through his right hand during a gunfight at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill, he moved to another upstairs classroom, and another team member placed the tourniquet around his arm.

    “My hand was still bleeding,” Burke testified Thursday in federal court.

    The bullet that struck him — fired from one of four guns the shooter carried that day — entered through the top of Burke’s dominant hand and blew out on the bottom.

    Its path of travel fractured his ulna and exploded the small bones in his wrist.

    In an attempt to control the bleeding, Burke pressed his knee against his wrist to put pressure on the wound.

    It didn’t work.

    “My arm was completely numb,” he testified. “It felt like 100 pounds. It was just throbbing in pain.”

    By the time a second gun battle ended and police took Robert Bowers into custody, Burke had begun to feel woozy from blood loss.

    Burke said his colleagues made a plan to evacuate him for medical treatment. Someone would throw a flash bang into the room where Bowers had been to ensure there were no more threats inside.

    But, as they threw it, the device bounced back into the hallway at Burke’s feet. To avoid the detonation, Burke, a former high school physical education teacher, leaped down the set of stairs to the landing and then walked to safety.

    Burke’s testimony Thursday wrapped up the second week of trial for Bowers, who is charged with 63 federal counts in connection with the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the synagogue. It housed three congregations, Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light.

    Bowers, 50, of Baldwin is accused of killing 11 people as they worshipped that morning, including Rose Mallinger, 97; Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86; brothers David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59; Dan Stein, 71; Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Joyce Fienberg, 75; Melvin Wax, 87; Irving Younger, 69, and Richard Gottfried, 65.

    The government is seeking the death penalty. The guilt phase of the trial, which began May 30, is expected to last three weeks, while the sentencing phase is expected to last six weeks.

    Through two weeks, prosecutors have called 46 witnesses. Friday is a scheduled day off, and court will resume Monday.

    Burke, who spent about 40 minutes on the stand, told the jury he joined the SWAT team because he felt like it was a calling — to be the “tip of the spear” and work with a team.

    SWAT Officer Timothy Matson was Burke’s mentor when he joined the group. So, on the morning of the shooting, when he heard Matson screaming in pain after being shot, he knew he had to try to help.

    Burke, who was standing on a set of stairs outside the classroom where gunfire erupted, first placed the muzzle of his rifle against the drywall, aiming where he believed the suspect was on the other side.

    Burke said he engaged in “target-specific suppressive fire” through the wall and then peered through the doorway.

    “Officer Matson was attempting to crawl out. I then reached — I tried to grab the strap, the ‘dead man’s strap’ on the back of his vest.”

    As he did, Burke’s hand was struck by gunfire, but he didn’t realize it until he tried to grab his rifle, and his hand wouldn’t work.

    Burke helped push Matson head-first down the stairs to safety and then retreated to a classroom one level up.

    After fellow SWAT Officer John Persin put the tourniquet on, he removed Burke’s pistol from his holster and placed it in Burke’s left hand.

    “You’ve got to be ready to fight,” SWAT Officer Michael Saldutte told him.

    “Roger that,” Burke responded.

    Burke told the jury he has had four surgeries because of his injury, including receiving a cadaver nerve in his wrist when his own nerve stopped carrying signals to his hand. When that didn’t work, Burke said, doctors removed a tendon from his leg and put it in his wrist.

    Although he returned to work as a police officer in December 2019, Burke said he still has sensory issues with the top of his hand and finger pads and has trouble with fine motor skills.

    Earlier Thursday, the prosecution called several witnesses from the FBI who are based in Quantico, Va., including a forensics examiner in the bureau’s DNA unit, a visual information specialist and an electronics engineer.

    Curtis Thomas told the jury he was working in the FBI’s electronic device analysis unit Oct. 30, 2018, when he received a LG G6 Android smartphone that had belonged to Bowers.

    The device was protected by a passcode.

    “For this specific phone, the way it was, even the password was part of the encryption chain,” Thomas said.

    They were faced with a dilemma — if they tried a combination of numbers to crack the code, entering too many guesses would erase the user data. A team of researchers purchased the same model in an effort to figure out a way to get into the phone and keep the data intact.

    They learned that an earlier Android operating system would allow them to overwrite the number of passcode attempts, which allowed investigators to use what Thomas described as a “password brute-force process.” They determined the correct six-number code to break into the device within a few hours.

    There wasn’t much to find on the cellphone.

    “It seemed like there was a low amount of data on this phone,” Thomas testified. “The phone itself … had no data that was reviewable on the phone.”

    It was unusual. Bowers had activated the phone March 31, 2018.

    “The phone didn’t have a single text message that hadn’t been deleted,” he said. “If it’s a typical day-to-day use phone for someone … you would expect to see some messages.”

    Investigators determined the user of the phone briefly visited the social network Gab at 9:47 a.m. the morning of the shooting. They were able to retrieve cached images from the phone, some of which were shown to the jury, that included selfies of Bowers, photos of guns and documents with his name, Thomas testified.

    In at least a few of the images of Bowers, he is flashing what traditionally has been known as the gesture for “OK” — forming his index finger and thumb in a circle, with three fingers up, as he peers through the circle.

    That gesture, however, has been used in recent years to represent white supremacy and the far right, according to the Anti-Defamation League and others.

    Also testifying Thursday was FBI forensic examiner Marcy Plaza, who works in the DNA casework lab in Quantico.

    Plaza said she performed the DNA analysis for several pieces of evidence collected at the synagogue the day of the attack, as well as items from Bowers’ home.

    Her work showed it was the highest possible likelihood that Bowers’ DNA was on two handguns and an AR-15 rifle collected from the scene. Plaza said it’s 6 septillion times more likely that Bowers contributed the DNA found on the three weapons “than if an unknown, unrelated individual” did.

    Bowers also was the likely contributor of DNA found on several other items tested: ear protection and three pairs of safety glasses found in his vehicle parked outside the synagogue, a canvas bag found inside the synagogue and a swab taken from a desk at his home, Plaza testified.

    The likelihood calculation was in the millions, trillions and quintillions, which indicated “very strong support” that Bowers was the contributor, she said.

    A second DNA sample found on the strap of the rifle strap belonged to Younger.

    Under cross-examination, attorney Michael Norman Burt asked Plaza if it is possible that Younger’s DNA could have been transferred by a police officer who touched his body and then touched Bowers’ weapon.
    Plaza said it is.

    “I cannot tell how DNA was deposited on an item. That’s one of the limitations,” she said.

    Burt also questioned whether DNA testing was completed on the rifle’s muzzle. Previous testimony indicated a potential contact wound to the back of one of the victims.

    “I believe I was asked if testing was done on the muzzle of the rifle but was not asked to do testing” on it, Plaza said.

    On redirect, she testified that the muzzle of a firearm isn’t typically tested because heat is not conducive to DNA preservation, and the muzzle does not have texture, making it difficult for cells to adhere to it.

    FBI supervisory special agent Cedric Jefferson also took the stand Thursday. At the time of the attack, Jefferson was the evidence response team leader for the FBI in West Virginia. He was tasked with searching Bowers’ apartment on McAnulty Road in Baldwin.

    Collecting evidence from Bowers’ small, one-bedroom apartment took about eight hours, he said.

    “The residence appeared to be very neat and organized, not cluttered,” Jefferson said.

    Jefferson said ammunition was sitting in the middle of the floor, and a computer was still on.

    Jurors were shown photographs of the wood-paneled rooms, as well as items inside, including three DVDs related to concealed-carry rights, home defense and self-defense. One of them was titled, “Proven Ground: How to ensure you’re physically and mentally prepared to protect yourself from a deadly threat.”

    Investigators also found computer equipment and clothing hanging in a closet with a tool box on the floor and a Monopoly board game on an upper shelf.

    Jefferson said a shooting target was hanging on the wall underneath an air conditioning unit, and there was an empty rifle case and three empty Glock handgun cases. Five firearms were found inside the apartment, as well as a “substantial amount” of ammunition.

    “The gun safe was open,” Jefferson said.

    https://triblive.com/community/murry...825e956abc6d5/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    FBI examiner says dozens of AR-15 casings found at Pittsburgh synagogue came from gun carried by attacker

    By Paula Reed Ward and Justin Vellucci
    triblive.com


    Retired FBI firearms examiner Brett Mills said 67 cartridge casings found at the Tree of Life synagogue after an Oct. 27, 2018, attack there were fired from an AR-15 rifle that Robert Bowers carried into the building.

    They included five casings outside the large, plate-glass window in the front of Squirrel Hill synagogue.

    Thirteen in the building’s lobby. Sixteen in the mezzanine. Thirteen in the synagogue’s Pervin Chapel. And 10 each in the New Light congregation’s sanctuary and a basement kitchen.

    Mills, who has since retired from the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., was scheduled to return to the witness stand Monday afternoon in Bowers’ federal trial to describe the work he did examining more than 850 pieces of evidence connected with the mass shooting that killed 11 people during worship services.

    Monday kicked off the third week of trial for Bowers, who is charged with 63 federal counts in connection with the attack at the synagogue that housed the Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light congregations.

    Those killed in the attack included Rose Mallinger, 97; Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86; brothers David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59; Dan Stein, 71; Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Joyce Fienberg, 75; Melvin Wax, 87; Irving Younger, 69, and Richard Gottfried, 65.

    The government is seeking the death penalty against Bowers, 50, of Baldwin. The guilt phase of the trial, which began May 30, is expected to last about three weeks, while the sentencing phase is expected to last six weeks.

    Through Monday morning, prosecutors had called 50 witnesses.

    Prosecutors moved through firearms and ballistic evidence collected from the scene at Shady and Wilkins avenues.

    Mills, who now works as a Department of Justice contractor in Somalia’s Mogadishu, methodically went through the scores of bullet and bullet fragments found in multiple rooms at the synagogue.

    He described the various parts of a round of ammunition, and how the lands and grooves inside the barrel of a weapon imprint marks on bullets that help investigators identify the gun from they were fired.

    Mills said the synagogue shooter chose bullets made by the small manufacturer Lehigh Defense in Quakertown, Pa., that are intended to “penetrate deeper” into human tissue. The bullets have a head that looks like the tip of a Phillips-head screwdriver or a plus sign.

    “These are supposed to create maximum cavitation,” he said.

    The morning session closed with an image of Pittsburgh police SWAT Officer Timothy Matson’s olive-toned tactical vest, from which Mills said the FBI recovered two Lehigh Defense bullets. Matson was critically wounded in an upper-level classroom as he and other members of his team tracked Bowers through the synagogue.

    Matson sat in the back of the courtroom during Monday’s testimony as he has done almost every day of the trial.

    Earlier Monday, Kevin Kauffman, a retired agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified that three Glock pistols, a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun and the Colt AR-15 rifle used at the synagogue all crossed state lines before the attack.

    The pistols were made in Austria, while the AR-15 rifle and shotgun were made in Connecticut, Kauffman said.

    The ammunition used in the synagogue shooting was made in Missouri, France and Israel and also crossed state lines to get to Pittsburgh, Kauffman said.

    Proving that the weapons and ammunition moved through interstate commerce is an essential element in the government’s case.

    Prosecutors also called two witnesses who owned holster manufacturing companies, the Texas-based White Hat Holsters and Remora Holsters in Florida.

    Anthony Farah, who owned White Hat Holsters from 2011 to 2022, said 99% of his sales were made online. He had a small store in Arlington, Texas, where the holsters were made.

    Farah said he exchanged emails with Bowers in October 2012 about models of holsters.

    Alan E. Bogdan, owner of Remora Holsters, said he communicated with Bowers by email in October 2011. His products are made in Naples, Fla.

    The witnesses said that if Bowers did order their holsters, they would have needed to cross state lines to get to Pittsburgh.

    https://triblive.com/local/fbi-exami...d-by-attacker/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Pittsburgh synagogue attacker's social media activity showed hatred of Jews

    By Paula Reed Ward and Justin Vellucci
    triblive.com

    In the three weeks leading up to the 2018 mass shooting at a Squirrel Hill synagogue, the attacker visited the website for a refugee resettlement agency repeatedly — including the morning he killed 11 people at the synagogue.

    Robert Bowers visited the site for HIAS, formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, on Oct. 6, 10, 21, 25 and 27, 2018, just 90 minutes before he entered the Tree of Life synagogue armed with four firearms, including an AR-15.

    While the government elicited that information from FBI tactical specialist Evan Browne during lengthy testimony on Tuesday, Browne spent most of his nearly three hours on the witness stand recounting hundreds of hate-filled posts from the defendant on the alt-right social media website Gab.com.

    Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, is charged with 63 federal counts in connection with the attack at the synagogue that housed the Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light congregations.

    Those killed included Rose Mallinger, 97; Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86; brothers David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59; Dan Stein, 71; Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Joyce Fienberg, 75; Melvin Wax, 87; Irving Younger, 69, and Richard Gottfried, 65.

    The government is seeking the death penalty against Bowers, alleging that he committed a hate crime by attacking Jews while they attended religious services.

    During opening statements, the defense admitted that Bowers attacked the synagogue but claimed he did not kill the victims because they were Jewish. Instead, they said Bowers was motivated by his anger that Jews were assisting HIAS, a refugee resettlement group.

    In analyzing Bowers’ online posts, Browne told the jury that Bowers only posted using the word HIAS eight times.

    Browne searched for keywords in more than 19,000 rows of data provided by the platform.

    Browne testified that Bowers posted a slur for Jewish people 87 times in 2018. He said “Jew” 152 times.

    By comparison, he said “immigration” once and “refugee” only three times, potentially undermining the defense’s opening-statement claim that Bowers committed the shooting due to his hatred of HIAS, not Jews.

    In addition to his posts, Bowers “liked” plenty of antisemitic content posted by other people, Browne said. They included:

    • A March 7, 2018, post about the Final Solution, Adolf Hitler’s plan to murder all Jews in Europe.
    • A March 8, 2018, post saying Jews are “children of the devil.”
    • A Feb. 18, 2018, post that called for a “race war” to create a “White-only nation.”
    • A Feb. 28, 2018, post comparing Jews to an HIV infection.
    • A March 1, 2018, post calling Jewish people a “blood-thirsty tribe.”
    • A May 9, 2018, post that said the “bad guys won” World War II.
    • A June 11, 2018, post that said, “Everything that’s screwed up in our world today is either caused or pushed by Jews.”

    Bowers also posted, reposted and “liked” content on Gab.com that used racist slurs, Browne said.

    A keyword search showed that posts liked by Bowers used the words “immigration” on 83 occasions; “invader,” 48 times; “refugee,” 58 times; “HIAS,” twice; a Jewish slur, 449 times, and “Jew,” 2,372 times.

    Defense attorney Michael Burt briefly cross-examined Browne, focusing on how he took the lengthy spreadsheet and turned it into a “subset” of 340 items. His questioning of Browne frequently led attorneys on both sides of the case to meet at sidebar with U.S. District Judge Robert Colville.

    Browne stepped down from the witness stand shortly before the morning session broke for lunch around 11:55 a.m.

    Late Monday, defense attorneys filed a motion asking Colville to hold a hearing to determine whether the government violated an order forbidding members of the trial team from participating in the mental health evaluation of the defendant by their experts.

    Bowers’ lawyers have said that during the sentencing phase they could offer a mental health defense, including that he has schizophrenia.

    The government sought, and was granted, a request to have their own psychiatric experts evaluate him, a process that occurred between jury selection and the start of testimony. The reports from that evaluation are to be kept under seal until that portion of the trial begins, including from government prosecutors.

    However, according to Monday’s motion, members of the prosecution trial team observed the government expert interviewing at least four witnesses, including three officers from the Butler County Prison, where Bowers is being held.

    In the motion, the defense noted that the government objected to any of Bowers’ team observing the evaluations.

    “By arranging for one of its trial lawyers and its case agent to be present during these interviews, the government has done precisely what it fought so hard and so successfully to prevent defense counsel from doing, i.e., access a portion of the expert’s evaluation process prior to the conclusion of the guilt phase of the trial,” the defense wrote.

    On Tuesday, Colville gave the prosecution until 9 a.m. Wednesday to file a response.

    https://triblive.com/local/pittsburg...atred-of-jews/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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