On Oct. 27, 2018, Robert Bowers opened fire during Shabbat services at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood. He killed 11 people and wounded six others, four of whom were police officers. Those killed ranged in age from 54 to 97.
The shooting is being treated as a hate crime, with Bowers facing 30 criminal charges from the state and 29 federal charges.
The Pittsburgh community has banded together in the aftermath of the synagogue shooting to heal, to ask questions and to call for change. PublicSource will continue to elevate these topics and conversations as our city comes to terms with this tragic event and looks toward the future.
Matt Stroud | “It would be good to call out hate crimes more when they happen and to show that there are consequences,” Lu-in Wang, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said. “One of the problems is when people think they can get away with it, then there’s no deterrence and it’s almost like you’ve gamed the system.”
Pittsburgh is no Karachi. Bombings. Extortions. Killings. Acts of terror are the norm in Pakistan’s most populous city of Karachi. Yet mosques, churches and temples keep their doors open at all times for any of its 23 million residents seeking to stop by for a moment of reflection.
