Butler County community reacts to Bowers’ death sentence
A Star of David hands from a fence outside the dormant landmark Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood on Thursday, July 13, 2023, the day a federal jury announced they had found Robert Bowers, who in 2018 killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue, eligible for the death penalty. The next stage of the trial with present further evidence and testimony on whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison. It stands as the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar/File)
Clergy, local authorities and members of Butler County’s Jewish community expressed the need for continued community engagement and dialogue in the aftermath of the trial of the gunman who murdered 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s historic Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill in October 2018.
Robert Bowers, 50, was formally sentenced Thursday, Aug. 3, a day after the jury returned a death sentence. On Thursday, U.S. Judge Robert Colville pronounced the sentence.
The shooting is the deadliest antisemitic attack in the history of the United States.
