A gunman charged with killing 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue has been found guilty on by a jury in the US state of Pennsylvania.
Truck driver Robert Bowers, 50, is yet to be sentenced but could face the death penalty.
The attack on October 27 inside the Tree of Life synagogue was the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history.
Bowers pleaded not guilty to all 63 charges against him. The jury found him guilty on all counts.
During the three-week trial prosecutors called 60 witnesses as they tried to prove the gunman carried out his attack because of a hatred for Jews.
Bowers’ defence team did not call any witnesses and did not deny that he carried out the attack, but said it was due a delusional hatred for immigrants and a Jewish non-profit group, not Jewish people.
Under US federal law, in order for the jury to impose the death penalty, prosecutors must prove that Bowers was motivated by race hate or killed to stop people from exercising their religious beliefs.
he jury deliberated about five hours over two days before reaching a verdict.
Bowers turned a sacred house of worship into a “hunting ground,” targeting his victims because of their religion, a prosecutor told jurors on Thursday. Reading the names of each of the 11 victims he killed, prosecutor Mary Hahn asked the jury to “hold this defendant accountable ... and hold him accountable for those who cannot testify.”
Bowers, who was armed with an AR-15 rifle and other weapons, also shot and wounded seven, including five responding police officers.
Prosecutors presented evidence of his deep-seated animosity toward Jews and immigrants. Over 11 days of testimony, jurors learned that Bowers had extensively posted, shared or liked antisemitic and white supremacist content on Gab, a social media platform popular with the far right, and praised Hitler and the Holocaust. Bowers told police that “all these Jews need to die,” Hahn said.
Survivors testified about the terror they felt that day, including a woman who recounted how she was shot in the arm and then realized her 97-year-old-mother had been shot and killed right next to her. Andrea Wedner, the trial’s last witness, told jurors she touched her mother’s lifeless body and cried out, “Mommy,” before SWAT officers led her to safety.
A further hearing will be held to determine whether Bowers will receive a death penalty sentence.
