Bus Driver Virene Poliquin Assaults Students

Virene Poliquin is a former bus driver from New Hampshire who has been charged with assaulting multiple students with disabilities. According to police reports while Virene Poliquin was employed by Durham Bus Company she would assault at least three students aged five and six. The assaults were everything from clapping, kicking, grabbing, covering mouths with a hand, and pouring water on a victim.

Police would learn about the assaults and would begin a investigation and soon after Virene Poliquin would be charged with nine counts of misdemeanor simple assault. I am a little bit surprised that there are no charges related to child abuse considering the age and disabilities of the assault victims.

Needless to say Virene Poiquin employment as a bus driver is over. The sixty eight year old woman would post a $500 bond and would be released until her next court appearance.

Virene Poliquin More News

A former New Hampshire school bus driver was arrested Monday after police say she recently assaulted at least three students with disabilities.

Virene Poliquin, 68, of Hudson, is charged with nine counts of misdemeanor simple assault in connection with “disturbing” acts involving three juveniles between the ages of 5 and 6, Hudson Police Chief Tad Dionne announced Tuesday.

Police launched an investigation into Poliquin after the Hudson School District received a report on Feb. 20 about an alleged incident in which water was thrown on a child who was riding a bus that transports students with disabilities, according to Dionne.

“During the course of the investigation, it was determined that Virene Poliquin assaulted one student seven times and two other students once,” Dionne said during a news conference.

The nature of the alleged assaults included clapping, kicking, grabbing, covering mouths with a hand, and pouring water on a victim. Dionne said all of the assaults occurred on Feb. 17. There were no injuries were reported.

“I’ve been a police officer a long time. Needless to say, there aren’t too many events that make me pause when reviewing a case. This incident did so. The victims in this case are among our most vulnerable,” Dionne said. “Poliquin’s actions are completely unacceptable, disturbing, and without justification under the law.”

The Durham Bus Company, Poliquin’s former employer, is said to be cooperating with the investigation.

Police are still working to determine whether any additional assaults happened on other dates.

Poliquin has since posted $500 bail. She is due to appear in court on April 6.

An investigation remains ongoing.

https://news.yahoo.com/hampshire-school-bus-driver-accused-151104745.html

Francisco Severo Torres Attempts To Open Plane Door

Francisco Severo Torres is in a whole lot of trouble after he attempted to open a plane door during a flight from Los Angeles to Boston and then attempted to stab a flight attendant multiple times. According to police reports Francisco Severo Torres was a passenger on a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston when mid flight he attempted to open up an emergency door.

When Francisco Severo Torres was confronted by a flight attendant he attempted to stab her three times in the neck with a broken spoon. Thankfully other passengers would be able to restrain Francisco Severo Torres and would be held until the flight landed at Boston Logan International Airport.

Francisco Severo Torres has been charged with one count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon

Francisco Severo Torres More News

A Massachusetts man was arrested for allegedly attempting to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon three times during a flight from Los Angeles to Boston on Monday, after attempting to open an emergency exit door, according to the Justice Department.

Francisco Severo Torres, 33, faces one charge of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon. Torres was arrested at Boston Logan International Airport Monday and will remain detained pending a hearing set for Thursday.

During a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston, the flight crew saw an alarm that a door in the plane had been disarmed and, after inspection, a flight attendant saw the door’s locking handle had been pushed out of the fully locked position and an emergency slide arming lever had been disarmed, according to the Justice Department.

A flight attendant who saw Torres near the door went to talk to Torres about the door, according to the department, who asked if there were cameras showing he had tampered with the door.

“According to court documents, the flight attendant then notified the captain that they believed Torres posed a threat to the aircraft and that the captain needed to land the aircraft as soon as possible,” the Justice Department said.

Soon after, Torres allegedly got out of his seat, mouthing something, before thrusting “towards one of the flight attendants in a stabbing motion with a broken metal spoon, hitting the flight attendant on the neck area three times,” the department said.

Torres was then tackled by other passengers on the flight and was immediately taken into custody after the flight landed.

According to a criminal complaint, Torres told investigators he broke a spoon in half a bathroom on the airplane to use as a weapon. He also told law enforcement that he tried to open the emergency door and “had gotten the idea” to jump out of the plane, according to the complaint.

Torres told investigators he was trying to defend himself and tried to stab the flight attendant because he believed they were trying to kill him, the complaint states.

The flight attendant felt the object Torres was holding in his hand “hit him on his shirt collar and tie three times,” according to the complaint.

United Airlines says it has banned Torres from flying on future flights following this incident.

“Thanks to the quick action of our crew and customers, one customer was restrained after becoming a security concern on United flight 2609 from Los Angeles to Boston,” United said in a statement.

United says the flight was able to land safely and without any reported injuries.

“We have zero tolerance for any type of violence on our flights, and this customer will be banned from flying on United pending an investigation. We are cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation,” the statement says.

Unruly passengers continue to be an issue on flights around the country, adding to a host of travel disruptions in recent days ranging from bird strikes, aircraft striking each other on the ground, and episodes of severe turbulence.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/06/us/boston-flight-exit-door-arrest/index.html

Byrion Montgomery Charged In Triple Murder

Byrion Montgomery is a seventeen year old who has been charged with three murders in connection to a home invasion in Illinois. According to police reports Byrion Montgomery would allegedly force his way into the home and would shoot dead three people including his girlfriend. Bolingbrook Police Department have released the names of the deceased as 40-year-old Cartez Daniels, 17-year-old Samiya Shelton-Tillman, and 9-year-old Sanai Daniels. Another person was shot but is expected to survive their injuries.

Byrion Montgomery is being charged with faces nine counts of first-degree murder, along with one count each of the following: attempted first-degree murder, home invasion, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. This teen killer will be prosecuted as an adult

Byrion Montgomery charged in shooting that left 3 dead at home outside Chicago

A 17-year-old was charged Monday with multiple counts of first-degree murder and other crimes in the fatal shootings of a girl he was dating and two other people in a suburban Chicago home, prosecutors said.

The suspect, identified as Byrion Montgomery, also charged with nine counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, home invasion, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office said.

He was arrested following the shootings Sunday night in Bolingbrook in what police said was a suspected home invasion.

Three people were pronounced dead at the scene. Police later identified them as 40-year-old Cartez L. Daniels, 17-year-old Samiya A. Shelton-Tillman, and a 9-year-old girl whose name has not been released. A 34-year-old woman who was shot was taken to the hospital, where her condition was stabilized.

A 14-year-old boy and a 3-year-old boy who were in the home at the time of the shooting were not harmed, police said.

Prosecutors allege Byrion Montgomery was dating Shelton-Tillman. They also said the suspect allegedly stabbed Daniels, CBS Chicago reported.

Bolingbrook police spokesman Anthony Columbus said Monday that “all indications are he was the sole offender.

The shooting was reported about 8:15 p.m. Sunday, and the suspect was arrested about two hours later near his home. It wasn’t clear whether Montgomery had an attorney who could to comment on the allegations against him. The teen was being held on $20 million bond.

A crime scene investigation was being conducted in the community about 30 miles west of Chicago, police said.

Neighbor Melinda Taylor told the Chicago Tribune she heard a loud thud Sunday night prior to first responders arriving at the home across the street.

Taylor said her son plays with a teen who lives in the home where the shooting occurred and that the family there never stuck out.

“They just came and go and went to work, like everybody else,” she said.

A neighbor who lives next door to the home where the shooting occurred told CBS Chicago that she did not hear the gunfire on Sunday night. She said the people living there were strangers to her, according to the news station. Others told the station they were shocked to hear about a crime of this nature happening on their block.

“Just seeing the number of ambulances on the street, I knew it was something really bad,” one woman said, according to CBS Chicago. Lashuna Fisher, a Bolingbrook resident, called the shooting “very devastating” in comments to the station.

“I’m a long resident of Bolingbrook, so that’s all I know is Bolingbrook,” Fisher told CBS Chicago. “When something like this hit in Bolingbrook, it’s just like hitting home. So it’s just like family, but not family.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/byrion-montgomery-teen-charged-fatal-shooting-three-dead-home-invasion-chicago/

Gary Green Texas Death Row

Gar

Gary Green was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murders of his wife and her daughter. According to court documents Gary Green would fatally stab Lovetta Armstead before drowning her six year old daughter Jazzmen Montgomery. Gary Green would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Gary Green is scheduled to be executed on March 7 2023

Gary Green 2023 Information

Name	Green, Gary
TDCJ Number	999561
Date of Birth	03/14/1971
Date Received	11/22/2010
Age (when Received)	39
Education Level (Highest Grade Completed)
Date of Offense	09/22/2009
	Age (at the time of Offense)	37
	County	Dallas
	Race	Black
	Gender	Male
	Hair Color	Black
	Height (in Feet and Inches)	6′ 3″
	Weight (in Pounds)	365
	Eye Color	Brown
	Native County
	Native State

Gary Green More News

Two brothers tearfully recounted for a Dallas County jury Tuesday how their stepfather forced them to look at the dead bodies of their slain mother and little sister.

The boys’ emotional testimony came in the capital murder trial of Gary Green, 39, where they also told jurors that they persuaded their mother’s husband not to kill them, too. Green is accused of killing Lovetta Armstead and her 6-year-old daughter, Jazzmen Montgomery, at their south Oak Cliff home in September 2009.

As they see their mother lying on the floor, “we just fall on our knees and start crying,” the older boy, now 13, told jurors.

Armstead was killed shortly after informing Green that she wanted to annul their marriage just months after the wedding, according to police. Green had moved out, but he persuaded Armstead to let him spend the day at the house.

If convicted, Gary Green would face the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

The attack on Armstead was so violent, said prosecutors Andy Beach, Heath Harris, Josh Healy and Jennifer Bennett, that one knife broke and Green grabbed another.

Armstead also grabbed a knife and stabbed Green twice behind his shoulder.

But her stab wounds were too much and she died “a slow, painful, agonizing death,” Beach said.

Gary Green then grabbed the girl and drowned her in the bathtub, prosecutors said. He would later tell police that “it was so bad, I had to turn away.”

He showered in the same tub and went to pick his stepsons up from church. When they got home, he held the brothers at knifepoint and stabbed the youngest one in the abdomen.

Somehow, Beach said, the boys did what their mother could not and persuaded Green not to kill them. The youngest brother did all the talking. His older brother testified that he was too scared.

“We’re too little to die,” the younger brother, now 10, testified he told Green. “We won’t tell anybody about it.”

They also told Gary Green that they loved him.

After Green told the boys he would spare their lives, he told them he had something to show them. He took them into the bedroom and showed them their dead mother.

“I killed your mom because I loved her to death,” Beach said Green told the boys.

They then saw the body of their sister face down on the bloody floor of the bathroom. Her hands were bound behind her back with duct tape.

The older boy said Green ordered him to retrieve his pills, forcing him to walk through the blood that covered the bathroom floor.

Green then left, he said, after making the boys hug him and promise not to call the police until he was gone.

The boys testified Green told them he was going to kill himself.

“You know how I told you to say, ‘See you later’ and never ‘Bye?’ ” the older quoted Green as saying.

“Well, this is goodbye.”

Bursting into tears

The younger brother was seated at the witness stand during a break and smiled while talking to attorneys. But he burst into tears when Green entered the courtroom from a jail cell.

When prosecutors couldn’t calm him, he was ushered from the courtroom. The boy returned minutes later, armed with pockets full of candy.

As the younger boy testified, he glanced constantly at Green, who sat quietly and stared ahead throughout the day’s testimony. The boy said he once cared for Green, telling jurors, “I loved him to death.”

‘5 lives taken today’

Earlier Tuesday, prosecutors introduced three letters that the couple exchanged on the day of the murders.

In the first message, written on notebook paper, Armstead asked Green to move out of their home: “I know you love me and I love you but it’s time we part.”

In the second, she voiced regrets at allowing Green back into her life.

In the final letter, Green said he planned to kill Armstead, her three children and himself. The letter showed to jurors was typed. The original was covered in blood and found on Armstead’s bed.

“You asked to see the monster so here is the monster you made me!” he wrote. There “will be 5 lives taken today me being the 5th!”

At one point in his final letter to Armstead, Green reflected on his fate.

“I pray that the Lord allows my soul to enter Heaven,” he wrote. “If not I will burn in Hell forever.”

In brief opening remarks, Green’s defense attorneys, Paul Johnson, Kobby Warren and Brady Wyatt asked jurors not to make up their minds until they hear all the evidence.

Testimony is expected to resume today.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2010/10/27/13-year-old-says-murder-defendant-made-him-view-the-dead-bodies-of-his-mother-and-baby-sister/

Gary Green Execution

A Texas inmate convicted of fatally stabbing his estranged wife and drowning her 6-year-old daughter in a bathtub nearly 14 years ago was executed on Tuesday.

Gary Green, 51, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the September 2009 deaths of Lovetta Armstead, 32, and her daughter, Jazzmen Montgomery, at their Dallas home. Green’s attorneys did not file any appeals seeking to stop the execution.

A Buddhist spiritual adviser chosen by Green stood beside the death chamber gurney at the inmate’s feet and said a brief prayer. Green then apologized profusely when asked by the warden if he had a final statement.

“I apologize for all the harm I have caused you and your family,” Green said, looking at relatives of his victims who watched through a window. “We ate together, we laughed and cried together as a family. I’m sorry I failed you.”

He said he took “two people that we all loved, and I had to live with that while I was here

Crime

Texas executes man convicted of killing his estranged wife and her daughter

March 7, 2023 / 10:03 PM / AP

A Texas inmate convicted of fatally stabbing his estranged wife and drowning her 6-year-old daughter in a bathtub nearly 14 years ago was executed on Tuesday.

He said he took “two people that we all loved, and I had to live with that while I was here.”

“We were all one and I broke that bond,” he continued. “I ask that you forgive me, not for me but for y’all. I’m fixing to go home and y’all are going to be here. I want to make sure you don’t suffer. You have to forgive me and heal and move on. … I’m not the man I used to be.”

Instead of inserting the IV needles in each arm, prison technicians had to use a vein in Green’s right arm and a vein on the top of his left hand, delaying the injection briefly.

As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began, Green was thanking prison administrators, chaplains and “all the beautiful human beings at the Polunsky Unit,” the prison that houses Texas’ condemned men. Then he took several quick breaths, which evolved into snores. After nine snores, all movement ceased. Several of the victims’ relatives hugged and cried.

He was pronounced dead 33 minutes later, at 7:07 p.m.

Ray Montgomery, Jazzmen’s father and one of the witnesses, said recently that he wasn’t cheering for Green’s execution but saw it as the justice system at work.

“It’s justice for the way my daughter was tortured. It’s justice for the way that Lovetta was murdered,” said Montgomery, 43. He and other witnesses did not speak with reporters afterward.

In prior appeals, Green’s attorneys had claimed he was intellectually disabled and had a lifelong history of psychiatric disorders. Those appeals were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court and lower appeals courts.

The high court has prohibited the death penalty for the intellectually disabled, but not for people with serious mental illness.

Authorities said Green committed the killings after Armstead sought to annul their marriage. On the day of the killings, Armstead had written two letters to Green, telling him that although she loved him, she had “to do what’s best for me.” In his own letter, which was angry and rambling, Green expressed the belief Armstead and her children were involved in a plot against him.

“You asked to see the monster so here he is the monster you made me. … They will be 5 lives taken today me being the 5th,” Green wrote.

Armstead was stabbed more than two dozen times, and Green drowned Jazzmen in the home’s bathtub.

Authorities said Green also intended to kill Armstead’s two other children, then 9-year-old Jerrett and 12-year-old Jerome. Green stabbed Jerrett but both boys survived.

“We won’t tell anybody about it,” Jerrett told jurors in testimony about how he convinced Green to spare their lives.

Josh Healy, one of the prosecutors with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office that convicted Green, said the boys were incredibly brave.

Green “was an evil guy. It was one of the worst cases I’ve ever been a part of,” said Healy, now a defense attorney in Dallas.

Montgomery said he still has a close relationship with Armstead’s two sons. He said both lead productive lives and Jerome Armstead has a daughter who looks like Jazzmen.

“They still suffer a lot, I think,” said Montgomery, who is a special education English teacher.

Green’s execution was the first of two scheduled in Texas this week. Inmate Arthur Brown Jr. is set to be executed Thursday.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gary-green-execution-texas-death-estranged-wife-her-daughter/

Robert Bowers Tree Of Life Mass Shooting Trial Begins

Robert Bowers who is a man from Pennsylvania trial is beginning for the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting that left 11 people dead back in 2018. According to police reports Robert Bowers went to the Tree Of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill Pennsylvania and would open fire killing eleven people and injured six more people. Along the injured were members of the local police force. Robert Bowers would be arrested and is being charged for eleven murder and six attempted murders in a US Federal Court.

As well as the murder and attempted murder charges Robert Bowers is facing a total of sixty federal charges. If he is convicted Robert Bowers could face the death penalty and spend the rest of his life on Federal Death Row.

The trial of Robert Bowers has faced multiple delays due to COVID and his defense team delaying the start of the proceedings. Today is the first actual day and potential jurors are being processed.

Robert Bowers More News

The man accused of killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 appeared in a federal courtroom Monday morning for the first time in more than four years.

Robert Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, was present in the eighth-floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge Michael Colville for the first session of the first phase of jury selection.

The court has mailed 1,500 summonses to prospective jurors. Under federal court rules, 12 jurors and up to six alternate jurors will be selected.

Groups of prospective jurors are scheduled to appear twice a day at the federal courthouse on Grant Street over the next two weeks. Each group will include about 75 prospective jurors. The first group gathered Monday morning to receive instructions on how to complete the extensive questionnaire that ultimately will be used to select the jurors who will hear the case.

Jury selection, which is expected to last several weeks, will officially begin with in-person questioning on April 24, Colville said. The trial is expected to begin in mid-to-late May and will last about two months.

Robert Bowers, dressed in a dark sweater and white dress shirt, sat in the middle of a team of four defense attorneys and stood to face the prospective jurors when asked.

No one, other than Colville, addressed those gathered during the 17-minute session.

The judge began the session by talking about the importance of jury selection and describing the charges Bowers faces.

He is charged with dozens of counts, including committing hate crimes resulting in death and obstruction of religion resulting in death, stemming from the Oct. 27, 2018, mass shooting at the Squirrel Hill synagogue.

“Eleven worshippers were killed and others were shot and injured,” Colville said, including police officers who responded to the attack. “The government is seeking the death penalty as punishment if Robert Bowers is convicted in this case.”

Colville briefly described potential sentences in the case, telling the jury that if Bowers is convicted, he could either serve a sentence of life in prison — there is no parole in the federal system — or be sentenced to death.

“Each juror must ultimately make an individual judgment,” Colville said.

The group of prospective jurors, after receiving the court’s instruction, moved to another room in the building to complete the questionnaire.

“Please do not discuss the questions or your answers,” Colville told them. “There are not right or wrong answers. All jurors have had different life experiences that inform their thoughts and views.

“The integrity of the process depends on your truthfulness.”

Colville instructed the prospective jurors to not read or watch any news coverage of the case or do any independent research. They may not discuss the case with their family or friends.

The judge also told the group to answer their questionnaires without regard to how their answers will be perceived.

“Please do not answer on what you think you should say or what you think is socially desirable,” Colville said.

The judge told the panel that once the trial begins, each court day will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays, with the exception of every other Friday.

The jurors are not expected to be sequestered.

https://triblive.com/local/bowers-appears-in-federal-court-as-prospective-jurors-complete-questionnaires-in-tree-of-life-case/

Robert Bowers Other News

The American Jewish community is in mourning after a gunman killed 11 worshippers Saturday morning in a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest attack ever on Jews in the United States.

Jewish organizations said the violence at Tree of Life synagogue underscored the dangers of unchecked hatred in a time when anti-Semitic acts are on the rise.

According to law enforcement, suspect Robert Bowers targeted Jews online and made anti-Semitic comments during the shooting. While receiving medical care, he told a SWAT officer that he wanted all Jews to die, according to a criminal complaint.

Robert Bowers, whom authorities believe acted alone, faces 29 federal charges, some of which are punishable by death. The US attorney in Pittsburgh, Scott Brady, is seeking approval from Attorney General Jeff Sessions to seek the death penalty against Robert Bowers, according to a Justice Department spokesman.

Robert Bowers is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Monday afternoon.

The shooting struck the heart of Pittsburgh’s historically Jewish Squirrel Hill neighborhood and reverberated across the United States, closing out a week of traumatic events with common roots in hate. President Donald Trump ordered flags flown at half-staff in honor of the victims.

On Sunday, visiting dignitaries joined community leaders, politicians and residents of the metropolitan Pittsburgh area at the University of Pittsburgh for an interfaith service. They pledged to support the community and fight hate speech.

“We will drive anti-Semitism and the hate of any people back to the basement, on their computer, and away from the open discussions and dialogues around this city, around this state and around this country,” Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said.

Sunday’s vigil, the second since the Saturday morning shooting, came as a fuller picture began to emerge of the suspect. The 46-year-old resident of suburban Baldwin was taken into custody after a shootout with police. He is being treated in a hospital for gunshot wounds.

“They’re committing genocide to my people,” Robert Bowers told police during the shootout, according to an FBI affidavit. “I just want to kill Jews”

Investigators searched Bowers’ home with a robot on Saturday and searched his vehicle on Sunday, the FBI said. They’re looking for surveillance footage from the area that could provide clues.

For weeks before the shooting, Robert Bowers targeted Jews in frequent posts on Gab, a social media platform that bills itself as “the free speech social network.” He used anti-Semitic slurs, complained that President Donald Trump was surrounded by too many Jewish people and blamed Jews for helping migrant caravans in Central America.

He also posted pictures of his handgun collection. Robert Bowers has 21 guns registered to his name, said Rep. Mike Doyle, whose district includes Squirrel Hill

Four hours before the shooting, Robert Bowers posted about Trump. Minutes before storming inside the building, he logged onto Gab again and wrote to his followers.

“I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered,” he wrote. “Screw your optics, I’m going in.”

Gab denied supporting violence and said its mission is “to defend free expression and individual liberty online for all people.” Gab said it has backed up the suspect’s profile data, suspended the account and contacted the FBI.

Robert Jones, the FBI special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh office, called the shooting “the most horrific crime scene” he’d witnessed in 22 years with bureau. It began as a peaceful morning as dozens of people filed inside the building to celebrate Shabbat services with three congregations, Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light.

Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers with Tree of Life said the shooting began shortly after he started services at 9:45 a.m.

“My holy place has been defiled,” he said at Sunday’s service. He vowed to rebuild his congregation and called on those in the audience to do their part.

“Words of hate are unwelcome in Pittsburgh. It starts with everyone in this room, and I want to address for a moment some of our political leaders who are here. Ladies and gentlemen, it has to start with you as our leaders,” he said to a standing ovation.

“My words are not intended as political fodder, I address all equally. Stop the words of hate.”

Authorities on Sunday released the names of the 11 victims, all of whom were from Pennsylvania. They included a married couple, a pair of brothers and a beloved physician.

Joyce Fienberg, 75, Rose Mallinger, 97, Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, Cecil Rosenthal, 59, David Rosenthal, 54, Daniel Stein, 71, Melvin Wax, 87, and Irving Younger, 69, were from Pittsburgh. Richard Gottfried, 65, was from Ross Township and Bernice Simon, 84, and Sylvan Simon, 86, were from Wilkinsburg, Allegheny County Chief Medical Examiner Karl Williams said.

The Allegheny County medical examiner’s office said late Sunday that autopsies had been completed on the victims and all 11 died from rifle wounds with several suffering head wounds.

Six more people were injured: two police officers, two SWAT officers and two others, Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said. Robert Bowers shot three of them, authorities said.

Five people were hospitalized, including the four officers. Two were in critical condition: a 55-year-old man with multiple injuries to his extremities, and a 70-year-old man with gunshot wounds to the torso.

One officer was released Saturday and three remain in the hospital. All four were “in good spirits” when visited by a union representative on Saturday, said Robert Swartzwelder, president of the Pittsburgh Fraternal Order of Police.

Squirrel Hill residents heard screams and gunshots coming from the synagogue. In minutes, police officers in tactical gear arrived and urged them to stay indoors.

Police said they received 911 calls about an active shooter around 10 a.m., five minutes after Bowers made his last social media post. When officers entered the building, they found the victims’ bodies and survivors hiding. They rescued at least two people from the basement and scrambled to evacuate people as they looked for the gunman.

Two officers encountered the gunman as he was attempting to leave the building, according to a criminal complaint. The gunman fired at them, shooting one officer in the hand before fleeing back inside the synagogue. The other officer suffered several cuts to his face from shrapnel and broken glass.

SWAT officers found Robert Bowers on the third floor of the building and exchanged gunfire with him until he surrendered, authorities said. Two SWAT officers were injured in the gunfight, along with Robert Bowers.

Bowers used a Colt AR-15 rifle and three Glock .357 handguns during the attack, police said. Bowers legally purchased the three Glock .357s, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told CNN. It’s not clear whether the AR-15 was purchased legally.

In addition to those four guns, investigators recovered a shotgun in the alleged shooter’s car that was not used in the shooting, Doyle said, referencing information he learned from law enforcement briefings.

Robert Bowers faces at least 29 federal charges, including 11 counts of obstruction of exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death, plus 11 counts of using a firearm to commit murder. A conviction on any could be punishable by death, US Attorney Brady said.

When asked if the shooting could be considered an instance of domestic terrorism, Brady said there would need to be evidence the suspect tried to propagate a particular ideology through violence.

“We continue to see where that line is. But for now, at this point in our investigation, we’re treating it as a hate crime.”

In the shootout with police, Bowers also faces four counts of obstruction of exercise of religious beliefs resulting in bodily injury to a public safety officer, and three counts of use and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

He was also charged with 11 state offenses, including attempted homicide and aggravated assault.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum said the shooting is a reminder of “all the dangers of unchecked hatred and anti-Semitism, which must be confronted wherever they appear.”

In 2017, anti-Semitic incidents in the United States surged nearly 60%, according to the Anti-Defamation League. It found 1,986 cases of harassment, vandalism or physical assault against Jews and Jewish institutions last year.

The shooting drew sympathy from the Israeli government and its people. Mourners staged makeshift memorials in Jerusalem’s Zion Square and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Sunday to express his condolences. Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett traveled to Pittsburgh for Sunday’s service.

“Nearly 80 years since Kristallnacht, when the Jews of Europe perished in the flames of their houses of worship, one thing is clear: Anti-Semitism, Jew-hating, is not a distant memory,” Bennett said. “It’s not a thing of the past, nor a chapter in the history books. It is a very real threat.”

Adam Hertzman, director of marketing for the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh, said it was too early to say if the community will add permanent security to synagogues in the area.

“Our focus at the moment is on mourning those who have passed and trying to comfort the people who are bereaved,” Hertzman said.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/28/us/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting/index.html