Officer: Accused Tree Of Life Synagogue Shooter Robert Bowers Talked Of Killing Jews

By Andy Sheehan, CBS Pittsburgh

October 13, 2021

A Pittsburgh police tactical officer who was among the first law enforcement members to get inside the synagogue building during a shooting three years ago that killed 11 people told a judge Tuesday that defendant Robert Bowers made several references to killing Jews.

Officer Stephen Mescan was the first to testify in what is expected to be a two-day hearing into whether prosecutors will be allowed to use at trial certain statements made by Bowers the day of the October 2018 massacre.

Federal prosecutors played dozens of snippets from police radio transmissions from the scene, including one in which Mescan said: “Suspect is talking about ‘all these Jews need to die.’” Mescan told U.S. District Judge Donetta W. Ambrose that Bowers made other similar statements that day.

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