Synagogue Massacre: Alleged Gunman Faces 29 Charges Including Hate Crimes; Trump: An Armed Guard Might Have Been Able to Stop Shooter; Trump Condemns Mass Killing as "Evil Anti-Semitic Attack".
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please join now in a moment of silence.</s>CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And the NFL announced there will also be a moment of silence before today's game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think everyone will remember October 27th.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this moment of hope, suddenly, there was this act of horror where a man ran into the synagogue with automatic weapons and murdered in cold blood 11 people.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel that we are all attacked. The people of Pittsburgh feel violated too.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a case they had an armed guard inside, they might have been able to stop him immediately.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are hearing from synagogues all over the world and not only their condolences but their expressions of solidarity.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Squirrel Hill is strong. And we are going to remain that way.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to watch each other's back and we have to be there for each other.</s>PAUL: Good morning. I'm Christi Paul in Atlanta. My colleague Victor Blackwell in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania right now. And, Victor, I would assume that that is exactly what the people of Pittsburgh are doing right now, trying to hold each other up.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Christi, good morning. I'm just about a block away from the Tree of Life Synagogue. And I just got a copy of "Pittsburgh Post Gazette", the Sunday edition here. And take a look. It's the Squirrel Hill massacre is the headline. This tight-knit community is now one of those communities, unfortunately, where you can simply say the name and people, unfortunately, remember a tragedy, like Sandy Hook or San Bernardino where a large group of people were taken in such tragedy. In just a couple of hours, this community will hear read out from the law enforcement for the first time the list of those 11 who were killed. Of course, they likely know those names because they know their neighbors, they know who did not come home, they know the cell phones that were not answered, and we'll talk more about those victims and the community in a moment. Let's first talk about the suspected shooter Robert Bowers, facing federal hate crime charges after police say he stormed the Pittsburgh synagogue and unleashed the bullets on worshippers there. In all, the alleged mass murderer faces 29 federal charges and dozen more state charges. We are learning new details from a criminal complaint filed overnight. Court documents say the suspected gunman killed 11 people -- 8 men, three women -- and opened fire on police several times. The shooter shot at the SWAT team as well on the third floor of the synagogue and they were wounded and he was wounded in this gun fight. He then told officers he wanted all Jews to die reportedly. And we expect to learn more about yesterday's tragedy and a few hours of law enforcement officials hold that news conference. The FBI, we know that they had taken charge of this investigation. Agents say this is the suspect's online footprint, that will be an important focus here.</s>BOB JONES, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE OF PITTSBURGH FBI OFFICE: We are in the early stages of this investigation. And over the next several days and weeks, we will look at everything in the suspect's life. His home, his vehicle, his social media, and his movements over the last several days. At this point, we have no knowledge that Bowers was known to law enforcement before today.</s>BLACKWELL: More on the next step for the investigation in a moment. But, first, here's how it all started.</s>BLACKWELL (voice-over): a somber vigil outside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, as thousands gathered to remember those killed in one of the deadliest attacks on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.</s>ANN BELSER, HEARD GUN SHOTS FROM SYNAGOGUE: I think everybody will remember October 27th. I think that is going to be -- that is going to be a date that is etched in everybody's mind. But I think that Squirrel Hill is strong and we are going to remain that way.</s>BLACKWELL: Eleven people killed, six injured, including four police officers who exchanged gunfire with the suspect at the scene in the historic Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill. 911 calls about an active shooter came in just before 10:00 a.m. Saturday during Sabbath services. Police radio captured the chaos and tactical teams engaged the gunman.</s>PATROL: We've got a guy barricaded, actively shooting at SWAT officers. Operator shot! I've got one operator shot at this time! Third floor contained in one room -- one operator down.</s>BLACKWELL: The 46-year-old Robert Bowers surrendered after shot several times by police. He now faces more than two dozen offenses, including federal hate crime charges and he could face the death penalty.</s>JONES: This is the most horrific crime scene I've seen in 22 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Members of the Tree of Life synagogue conducting a peaceful service in their place of worship were brutally murdered by a gunman targeting them simply because of their faith.</s>BLACKWELL: Pittsburgh police said Bowers made anti-Semitic statements during the shooting and in custody receiving medical treatment he reportedly told police he, quote, wanted all Jews to die for committing genocide to his people. Bowers also targeted Jews and immigrants in post on social media including gab, a so-called free speech network, blaming Jews for helping migrant caravans, and he called those in migrant caravans, quote, invaders. Five minutes before the shooting, Bowers posted this: I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in.</s>GOV. TOM WOLF (D), PENNSYLVANIA: My heart breaks for the members of the Jewish community. Today, all of Pennsylvania mourns with you. Anti-Semitism has absolutely no place in our commonwealth. Any attack on one community of faith in Pennsylvania is an attack against every community of faith in Pennsylvania.</s>BLACKWELL: Let's learn more about those who were injured. Let's go to Jean Casarez live from the Pittsburgh Hospital, where many of the injured were taken. Jean, what have we learned about the survivors of the shooting but also the doctors, those emergency room doctors who jumped in to help?</s>JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: absolutely amazing, Victor. There are six surviving victims and I just received correspondence from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center public relations office that all of the conditions remain the same. That is very good news because that means that the two in critical condition have, in fact, made it through the night. And we do know that a 70-year-old victim who had received multiple gunshot wounds to his torso affecting major organs underwent two surgeries yesterday. They have said a third may be necessary, but he remains in critical condition this morning, as well as a 55-year-old officer who confronted the suspect in the synagogue, multiple injuries to his extremities, remains in critical condition. We also have a 61- year-old victim, a female, as well as two other police officers. One police officer was actually released from the hospital. But what we do know is that there were three emergency room physicians that went to the seen and triaged the wounded. We weren't there, but CNN has recovered the actual dispatch audio as this all was going down. Listen to it for yourself.</s>PATROL: Patrol at the front door -- we got to evacuate some of these hostages.</s>DISPATCH: Received -- request for patrol at the front door evacuating hostages.</s>PATROL: We have a spent magazine -- looks like a high powered AK -- middle hallway off the 1-4 corner.</s>PATROL: I have a description.</s>DISPATCH: Go ahead.</s>PATROL: Tall white male, short hair, light blue shirt, jeans. Again that's tall white male, short hair, light blue shirt, jeans.</s>PATROL: I got one alive.</s>PATROL: We're evac'ing one right now -- still alive. We have a least four down in the atrium DOA at this time.</s>DISPATCH: Was there earlier intel that he may be in the basement?</s>PATROL: I had a report of at least one victim in the basement.</s>PAROL: I have an additional 4 victims -- 4 victims in the back of the atrium of the front hall total 8 down, 1 rescued at this time.</s>DISPATCH: What's your status in the basement?</s>PATROL: We're probably at the bottom of the stairwell cleared to the left. Working room to the right we have rifle cases in here with blood.</s>BLACKWELL: Of course, we will learn more at a news conference a little later this morning. Jean Casarez, thank you so much. Christi, back to you in Atlanta.</s>PAUL: All right. Victor, thank you very much. President Trump is again calling for unity after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. He followed through with a scheduled campaign rally in Illinois which he considered cancelling at one point we know. The president said terror cannot be allowed to interrupt our lives and said an armed guard may have prevented that attack. CNN White House reporter Sarah Westwood is with us now. Sarah, what did he say yesterday?</s>SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Christi, President Trump was condemning bigotry and condemning anti-Semitism at that rally in Illinois last night, which as you mentioned, White House aides look at an option cancelling out of respect for the 11 people who lost their lives in Pennsylvania yesterday but opted to go ahead and hold the campaign rally any way. Now, the president did demonstrate a more moderated tone. He restrained his focus more to policy than we usually see at these rallies. Take a listen to what he said at Murfreesboro.</s>TRUMP: This evil anti-Semitic attack is an assault on all of us. It's an assault on humanity. It will require all of us working together to extract the hateful poison of anti-Semitism from our world. This was an anti-Semitic attack at its worst. The scourge of anti-Semitism cannot be ignored, cannot be tolerated, and it cannot be allowed to continue.</s>WESTWOOD: Now, this is not the first time the president had addressed the shooting. He'd done so several times throughout the course of Saturday. One of them being at a farmers' event in Indiana. And speaking to reporters as he was leaving Washington at Andrews Air Force Base the president threw out several options for preventing this tragedy in the future. One of them was strengthening the death penalty, saying people who commit these heinous attacks should pay the ultimate price. But the other was putting armed guards in houses of worships, churches and synagogue, but the one that was attacked yesterday. He even suggested that the synagogue in Pennsylvania might have only had one casualty, the gunman, if an armed guard had been there. Take a listen.</s>TRUMP: If they had protection inside the results would have been far better. This is a dispute that will always exist, I suspect. But if they had some kind of a protection inside the temple, maybe it could have been a very much different situation. They didn't. And he was able to do things that, unfortunately, he shouldn't have been able to do.</s>WESTWOOD: The flags at the White House behind me are at half-staff in honor of the people who died yesterday. The president and first lady are holding a Halloween event at the White House later this afternoon, so it's possible we could hear more from the president about this tragedy today -- Christi.</s>PAUL: All right. Sarah Westwood, we appreciate it. Thank you so much. We have CNN political commentator Errol Louis with us now, political anchor for Spectrum News as well. Errol, thank you for being here. I cannot believe just yesterday we were sitting together talking about these bomb packages and now we're talking about 11 people who have died in this massacre. We heard those two options from the president. He certainly said things that the people probably needed to hear. He said this was anti-Semitic attack and it was the worst, it was evil. But when he starts talking about armed guards, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio did not take kindly to that. Let's listen to what he said.</s>MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: We should never blame the victims in an attack like this. We should never suggest that a house of worship has to have an armed guard for people to be able to go about their religious observance. That's not America. That's certainly not New York City. We do not require houses of worship to have an armed guard.</s>PAUL: For clarity, the president didn't -- as far as we can tell -- blame the victims. Are armed guards an option?</s>ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I would disagree with you there, I have to say. That sounded a lot like blaming the victim. If only they had an armed guard. That is a nonstarter in most communities, certainly in New York City. I speak in synagogues frequently. I have a son whose friends get bar mitzvah, he is and out of synagogues as well. This is not the way it works here. You don't have to have an armed guard all over the place. And then as a practical matter, I think we now know, just from the accounts that we have received so far, that even when fully armed, highly trained police officers responded, four of them were shot. So, the suggestion that we have more shoot-outs as a way to prevent these massacres is really -- it really doesn't make a lot of sense and it's not the president really leading on this issue. I mean, yes, anybody can speculate. Gee, what if we had a better shoot-out, maybe it would have happened differently. That is not leadership and not an answer. I think it should be clear to most people, though, that leadership has to come from below. We as a society got ourselves into this situation and it's we as a society, not the political leadership, that gets us out.</s>PAUL: People want to hear -- a lot of people want to hear -- they need a moment to absorb what is happening, certainly. But they want answers and they want to know something is being done to try to stop this. What did you need to hear from the president?</s>LOUIS: You know, I -- having met, interviewed, and covered the president, I wasn't expecting much to tell you the truth.</s>PAUL: But what do you need to hear, Errol? What do you need to hear?</s>LOUIS: Well, we -- the country and what I would say we need to hear is somebody who has some passion and some empathy, not simply, you know, calling for hardened houses of worship and more guns and sitting back. A lot of the president's tweets and even his comments made him sound like a bystander like rest of us. Gee, what a terrible thing, what a terrible tragedy. What we do need to hear I think is some direction forward, a path forward. What we need to hear the toxic brew of mental illness and universal availability of guns and social media that stokes a lot of it and public hate speech the president has been slow to recognize or condemn. That toxic brew, when it's all put together creates the conditions that allow this kind of thing to happen. So, recognizing that it is complicated instead of having more guns would be what we need to hear from the political leadership.</s>PAUL: All righty. Always appreciate having you hear, Errol Louis. Thank you.</s>LOUIS: Thank you.</s>PAUL: Uh-huh. A reporter for the "Pittsburgh Tribune" review tells us about the scene that she encountered at the synagogue massacre. We have that for you next, as well as trying to really grasp the picture of how this community is coping and going forward this morning.