CNN
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Three Saturdays each month, Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue hosts a service specifically for children known as the junior congregation.
In those days, a group of children would first gather in the lobby, and Stephen Weiss, a public school teacher and a youth leader at the synagogue, would then lead them through services, he said.
October 27, 2018, is not one of those Saturdays.
That miraculous coincidence was revealed in court last Thursday in the federal hate crimes trial of the man accused of attacking the synagogue that day and killing 11 people and injuring many more.
Robert Bowers, 50, has pleaded not guilty to 63 charges, including obstruction of the free exercise of religious belief resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death.
Prosecutors say he carried out the attack because of his hatred of Jews and their perceived support for a non-profit that supports refugees. His defense claimed he was responsible for the shooting but in opening statements sought to raise questions about his motive and intent in the attack.
If Bowers is convicted, the trial will move to the penalty phase, where the jury must decide whether to sentence him to death.
More than three days, the trial showed the terrible testimony from the congregations that gathered in the synagogue that day and were saved.
On Thursday, Weiss testified that she heard a “loud crashing sound” on the day of the shooting that she believed was someone dropping dishes or breaking glass by accident. Irving Younger and Cecil Rosenthal left the room to help – and then Weiss heard four or five gunshots.
“To me, it looks like a semi-automatic weapon,” and the casing looks like a long gun, he said. “As I was standing in the doorway, I saw (shells) bouncing on the floor directly in front of me.”
He fled from the gunfire and went downstairs to warn others, and then eventually escaped outside.
The Shabbat service that day was never completed, and the Tree of Light has sometimes had trouble getting the required 10 people together for services since then. They don’t have the same attendance, Weiss said, “because they were killed.”
David Klug
Robert Bowers’ hate crimes trial is expected to last until July, the court said.
Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of the New Light Congregation, which gathers in the Tree of Life building, testified that he heard broken glass and gunshots as services were about to begin.
He crawled, got down, and went into a room to hide, he said.
“It’s an instinct, I haven’t been to any – what do you call them – trainings,” he thought, “if someone enters the room we can avoid getting hit when we’re down on the ground.”
He lost his glasses and his yarmulke while fleeing. He and others, including Melvin Wax, went to a hidden closet room that Perlman said he only discovered seven days earlier.
Perlman said Wax was hard of hearing and at one point went to open the closet door, assuming the risk was over.
“I don’t know if he heard a noise, I don’t know if he understood what we were doing,” Perlman said. “He said, ‘Whatever it is that needs to be done, I’m going to go out and see what it is.'” Perlman said he told Wax to stay inside and hide, but “he wouldn’t listen to me.”
Wax, an 87-year-old accountant, was shot and killed.
Eventually, Perlman found a back door he hadn’t seen before that led him out into a neighboring yard.
“I was really scared, and I thought maybe I could get some help somewhere and all of a sudden I saw this door,” he said. “It could have been done as an emergency exit of some kind.”
Audrey Glickman, a member of the Tree of Life congregation, said they were only a few lines into their morning prayers when the shooting began.
“Soon we heard heavy fire echoing down the hallway,” Glickman said, “the sound of machine-gun fire was unmistakable.”
He tried to convince David Rosenthal, a faithful congregant with an intellectual disability, to flee with him to safety, but “he was completely angry” and would not leave. He never saw her again.
Glickman escapes through a door with Joe Charny and they hide in a room full of miscellaneous items at the top of the stairs.
“Not knowing how many people were attacking or where they were coming from, we thought hiding was the best thing we could do,” he testified. They covered themselves with prayer shawls to hide themselves, he said.
Charny, a psychiatrist and World War II veteran, told Glickman that he “looked into the gunman’s eye and saw the barrel of the gun,” he told the court.
After some time, they heard sirens and no more gunshots, so they went down the stairs and saw the police come through the doors. They were taken to a police car where “they kept us warm and safe,” Glickman testified.
Charny died of complications from a stroke this January at the age of 95.
Daniel Mead is a police officer who responded to a shooting with his partner before he was officially on duty.
When the call came in, he and his partner “just ran into the station,” Mead testified, noting that he wasn’t wearing a body camera.
When the two officers arrived at the synagogue, Mead said, “We didn’t hear anything either, we didn’t hear no shooting, nothing. We don’t know what happened, other than that call. ”
Mead eventually found the gunman near the door of the building, as he was “hugging the walls.”
“I saw a man with a rifle,” inside the building, he said. In a second, the gunman opened fire, hitting his wrist. The injured officer did not resist.
Mead said he never worked as a police officer again. “I still hear the shot,” he testified.