*(Via HuffPost) – Multiple people are dead after a shooter opened fire Saturday morning at the Tree of Life Congregation, a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
At least eight people were killed, law enforcement officials told local news station KDKA and NBC News. Several outlets, including NBC, KDKA and CNN reported that the suspect is 46-year-old Robert Bowers, citing police sources.
Six people were injured, four of whom were police officers, Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said at a Saturday afternoon press conference. He declined to comment on a specific total number of deaths and did not state the name of the suspect. He also declined to comment on whether weapons had been recovered.
“It’s a very horrific crime scene,” Hissrich said. “It’s one of the worst that I’ve seen, and I’ve seen some plane crashes. It’s very bad.”
Law enforcement had responded to reports of an active shooter at the synagogue, which was crowded for Saturday services in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, shortly before 10 a.m. Police sources told KDKA that a gunman walked into the synagogue and yelled, “All Jews must die,” before opening fire.
Hissrich said at the press conference that authorities considered the shooting a hate crime.
Congregation member Zachary Weiss, 26, told HuffPost that his father, Stephen Weiss, had been filling in on Saturday for a sick rabbi.
“Anytime a congregant passes away you lose a friend,” said Weiss, noting that his father was unharmed. “The city is coming together and right now that is all we can do.”
Multiple victims were being treated at UPMC Presbyterian, roughly two miles west of Tree of Life synagogue, a spokeswoman for the hospital told HuffPost in a statement.
Jeff Finkelstein of the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh told WHNT that he estimated between 60 and 100 people were inside the building when the shooting occurred.
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