A federal jury convicted gunman Robert Bowers on Friday on all 63 counts he faced in connection with killing 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history.
Bowers faced charges that included obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death, use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a crime of violence, and hate crimes resulting in death.
The jury returned a verdict after just over five hours of deliberations.
The conviction means the jury will now listen to additional evidence and decide whether to sentence Bowers, 50, to life in prison or death. Bowers had offered to plead guilty if prosecutors took the death penalty off the table.
The October 27, 2018, shooting left 11 people dead and six wounded, including four responding police officers. The synagogue was hosting three congregations for weekly Shabbat services at the time.
Bowers arrived at the synagogue armed with three handguns and an AR-15 rifle. He shot through a large window near the entrance of the building before opening fire on worshippers. Police shot Bowers multiple times before he surrendered and was taken into custody.
The verdict comes after a three-week trial in which jurors heard testimony from survivors, police officers and others. During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Bowers’s attack was motivated by his hatred for Jewish people.
“Once he entered the synagogue the defendant began to hunt, he moved from room to room, upstairs and downstairs … looking for Jewish worshippers to kill,” prosecutor Soo C. Song said.
Bowers had been making hateful posts about immigrants and Jewish people on the social media site Gab for weeks before he carried out the attack. He wrote that “Jews are a cancer on the planet, Jews are evil creatures, Jews are pedophiles,” prosecutors said.
He made antisemitic comments during the shootings and said he wanted to “kill Jews” while receiving medical treatment, according to the indictment.
Defense attorney Judy Clarke said that while there was “no question that this was a planned act,” jurors should “carefully scrutinize his intent” in the shooting.
“The prosecution says that Robert Bowers had a deep and abiding prejudice, that he hated Jews,” Clarke said. “We know that there is more to the story.”
Bowers, Clarke argued, had acted on “an irrational motive” and had “misguided intent.”
She said Bowers aimed to kill Jews who supported the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society because they were bringing in “invaders.”
“He somehow believed they were doing something so disastrously wrong, devastating to others and to children, that he had to act,” Clarke said.