For months, Robert D Bowers had been spewing his anger in post after post on the web, calling immigrants “invaders,” distributing racist memes and asserting that Jews were the “enemy of white people.”
Then, on Saturday, moments before the police say he barged into a Pittsburgh synagogue with an assault rifle and three handguns, he tapped out a final message: “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”
The authorities said Bowers, 46, then killed at least 11 people in and around the synagogue, Tree of Life, a spacious building with stained glass windows, a golden memorial tree and a Torah rescued from the Holocaust.
It was the Sabbath, the synagogue’s busiest day. The attack was one of the deadliest on the Jewish community in United States history.
“The actions of Robert Bowers represent the worst of humanity,” said Scott W Brady, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. “Please know that justice in this case will be swift and it will be severe.”
The police arrested Bowers, who had 21 guns registered to his name, according to Representative Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania. Officials said he was not known to law enforcement before the shooting, and a search of the Pennsylvania judiciary database shows only a 2015 traffic violation in his name.
Bowers took to Gab, a social network that bills itself as a being dedicated to free speech and which is increasingly popular among alt-right activists and white nationalists. After opening an account on it in January, he had shared a stream of anti-Jewish slurs and conspiracy theories. It was on Gab where he found a like-minded community, reposting messages from Nazi supporters.
“Jews are the children of Satan,” read Bowers’s biography.
Bowers lived about a 25-minute drive south of the synagogue in a brick apartment complex on a dead-end street, where he was frequently spotted smoking cigarettes outside. A neighbour said she could not remember seeing him speak to anyone, not in the two years she’d lived there.
The shooting came a day after federal authorities arrested a man in Florida on charges of sending mail bombs to prominent Democrats. The man, Cesar Sayoc Jr, had also posted vitriolic and sometimes violent messages — both online and on stickers attached to the windows of his van. Political rage fuelled Sayoc, who railed against liberals and immigrants and echoed the sabre-rattling rhetoric of Trump’s rallies, according to people who knew him.
But Bowers’s social media activity appeared to be much more extreme.
Bowers frequently reposted anti-Semitic content that alleged Jews control the nation. On a doctored image of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the gate read: “Lies Make Money.” Another post said: “Open your Eyes! It’s the filthy EVIL jews Bringing the Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!!”
Bowers also extended his anger to the president, whom he accused of not going far enough to achieve the political goals Bowers wanted.
Days before the shooting, he wrote: “Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist. There is no #MAGA as long as there is a” — he inserted a slur for Jews — “infestation.”
Another doctored image showed the president in conversation with a man wearing a skullcap. Yet another post featured a suitcase of guns.
Gab has grown increasingly popular among those whose views are unwelcome on other services. It grew out of claims of anti-conservative bias by Facebook and Twitter and is best known for its limited user guidelines.
The company confirmed that the name on the account matched the name of the alleged gunman. It took down the account, and released a statement saying it was cooperating with law enforcement. “Gab unequivocally disavows and condemns all acts of terrorism and violence,” the statement read.
On Saturday, in Bowers’s modest neighbourhood, a large truck from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives blocked the street. Some three dozen law enforcement officials milled around and neighbours came out to look, despite a cold steady rain.
Nearby, a Halloween light display sat on the lawn flashing on and off. A sign in the window read “Boo.”
One man, who said he had lived nearby for more than 15 years, stood outside shaking his head. He noted that many immigrant families had moved into the neighbourhood lately. Another woman said she had struggled to understand how the national epidemic of violent hate — so vivid and relentless on the media but in many ways still distant — had arrived at her doorstep.
“I can’t believe it has spread out this far,” she said.
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