Said this was one of about a dozen synagogues in the area . I would say roughly in the Squirrel Hill area, i dont know the exact number today but i would say it is close to that. Okay. Im sure the Pittsburgh Police and the Allegheny County police are on that part of the case. Howard feynman thank you for that. For awful you, welcome i am alex witt live at msnbc headquarters in new york. It is high noon on the east coast. If you are just joining us we want to bring you up to date on the breaking news we are follow. At least eight to ten people are dead in a shooting in a pittsburgh synagogues. The suspect is believed to be a 46yearold man. He is now in custody. The suspect was reportedly armed with an ar15style rifle as well as multiple handguns. Reportedly, a total of 12 people have been shot. That would include three Police Officers. The cite of this heinous incident, The Tree Of Life synagogues in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of pittsburgh. It is home to one of the largest
synagogueses in the area. The attack is believed to be a hate crime. Pennsylvania governor tom wolfe has arrived on the scene. The president is also expected to speak this hour on this. He already tweeted about this with his concerns. I am join right now by nbc justice correspondent Pete Williams. Pete, whats the latest on this from your Vantage Point . It apparently happened at about 10 30 when a man armed with what Authorities Say is an assaultstyle weapon, an ar 15 style weapon that can fire semiautomatic rounds entered the synagogues also potentially carrying a handgun, and opened fire. He was in there for a time. We dont know how long. Came out. Had his first engage men, we believe, with Police Officers, who were responding, went back in, and subsequently came back out where he was arrested. We believe he may be wounded. Hes a 46yearold man. We think hes from pittsburgh. We are not giving his name until
we are certain of the identity. And we dont know anything further about him. We havent found any social media or anything to indicate a possible background here. But according to the authorities, he did make some antisemitic comments. So it would seem to be clearly a hate crime. We believe that 12 people in all were shot. Presumably all by the gunman although that has yet to be determined. Three of those people were Law Enforcement. Their wounds vary in severity. And we are still waiting for clarification on the number of fatalities. But it is a large. No it it is a large numbe. Its somewhere between eight, nine, or ten. Any time Something Like this happens in a American City where you have an attack on a defined target the police in new york do what they do. They say now they are deploying heavy weapons teams across houses of worship across the city of new york even though this is no indication this is anything other than a local threat. Thats what they do in new york when there is any kind of a threat to a defined target. Understandably so. I know, pete, we did hear from the president via tweet. We know that he will in all likelihood make a statement in the hours. He has two rallies today. He said earlier, watching the events unfolding in fitzpatrick, pennsylvania, Law Enforcement on the scene. People in Squirrel Hill area should remain sheltered. Likes like multiple fatalities. Beware of active shooter. God bless all. Looks like he knew there were multiple fatales. In terms of closing down the actual site, we know there are three stories in this building,
three different areas were being used for worship on a Sabbath Morning. They will have to continue for quite some time because we are not sure that the suspect didnt do Something Else like plan an explosive device. That of course being the topic of conversation on everybodys minds throughout this entire week. So you expect it will take some time before the actual location of The Tree Of Life synagogues will be cleared . Even if there were no reports of suspicious packages and there are. I have gotten no confirmation from the federal authorities i have talked to who are assisting the police there no indication there has been a confirmation of that. Thats a complicating factor. Even without that it would take some time to clear the building. Authorities are doing two thing. They want to make sure whether or not anybody else was involved. They have got to check that out. They also have to check to see if there were any other victims. You have to add to that that somebody inside has seen a suspicious package. You have to check into that and that delays the process as well. If there is a hazardous device there, they will clear out all the people who are clearing the building and then they will get the bomb squad in or the right people to look at that. As we look at these pictures, we have to be careful to look at whats live and whats tape play back. We see pictures of people running inside as if they are responding to some sort of emergency. It is tough to tell from these pictures what is live like these pictures of people running in. What is live and whats tape playback. I think we have to be careful to mark the tape as tape and not live picture. Because the live picture is clearly what we are looking at here, where the situation does appear to be over in the sense that there is no more shooting. But now the clearing of the building is still the top priority. To your point, pete, the picture that we are looking at right now, it is live. And we dont see anybody running quickly. It would seem that if they were inside that building, there were officials in there trying to clear it of any potential issues, that would be a very painstaking process and going on, you know, literally foot by foot throughout that building. May i ask you in your role as our justice correspond end if this is deemed to be officially be denoted as a hate crime how does that change the equation at all for the suspect, who is in custody . Well, it is an additional possible charge. But i mean, if there were fatalities as there certainly are, then he is undoubtedly going to be charged with murder. So a hate crime would potentially be a sentence enhancement. You know. And i think the other possibility is that it opens up the possibility of federal jurisdiction since murder is not a federal crime, but there are federal hate crimes. Uhhuh. So that raises the possibility there could be a
federal charge as well. Normally in these situations the federal authorities would defer to the states and to the locals because it is their people who were the victims. So they have perhaps the greatest interest in seeing justice served. But it does raise it is a double thing. It is a sentence enhancement. And possibly raises the issue of federal jurisdiction. But thats way down the road. Yeah. Pete, we ask you to stay with us. I am going to go now to shawn henry, a former executive at the fbi and an msnbc analyst. So, shawn, we are just getting word i was showing this as pete was talking. Sources say The Tree Of Life synagogues has just now been secured and cleared. Lets talk about this totality. It was a twohour long onslaught when you talk about the level of carnage here. Talk about the efficacy in which police got on the scene did their job, considering there was a man with an arstyle weapon,
handguns that left eight to ten people in his wake. Police officers were shot. The police being there was critical to having this mitigated quickly. You may have had many more people injured or killed had this assailant been able to run throughout the synagogues undeterred by the responding Police Officers. When you say that the facility is secure, it may be secured in terms of we have been able to determine also no other suspects there. Perhaps there are no other devices there. But this will be an ongoing crime scene because there will be a very sensitive crime seen search looking at where rounds from shot, trajectory of the bullets, et cetera, when victims were hit. There will be a very extensive review there in that particular case. Let me add to something that pete said as well, that this will be looked at primarily by the local police. This will likely be a joint Terrorism Task force response. There appears to be fbi agents there the scene. I couldnt tell quite by looking here. But certainly Pittsburgh Police department is a heavy major player in the pittsburgh joint Terrorism Task force f. The fbi or federal authorities dont have actual jurisdiction, if its determined that they are going to iallow it to go to the locals, they will absolutely be providing assistance to their Pittsburgh Police partners. When you have Police Officers who have been killed, people who may have been killed in what may be a hate crime, the fbi will be providing resources from a tech knick and perspective, from an investigative prospective, providing enhanced resources and capabilities to ensure that that crime scene is secure, they have collected as much evidence as they can and this hear the providing continued intelligence for the Ongoing Investigation to determine what was the cause, what was the motive, who else may have been involved in the course of this particular incident or additional incidents that may have been planned a part of this. I imagine the investigation
is underway already into who this person s. He has been in custody for a short period. We had reports that he was injured and surrendered to police there. That part of the investigation is underway. But the reaction say of the n. Y. P. D. Now, without any sort of i guess claims or threats or anything against anything in new york city, yet they still feel the need to go out and offer some protection to different jewish synagogueses or places of congregation on this sabbath day. Thats probably not new york exclusive. I would think there are other cities probably doing the same thing taking a page from this and wanting to keep their citizens safe. I think thats right. In an abundance of caution law enforce innent are going to take proactive measures to ensure if there is a threat, something occurred elsewhere, that there might be a copycat, might be some other threat. Again just as a precautionary measure not necessarily saying there is a particular threat but just to give citizens a sense of comfort. You have got people that are worshipping all over the country today on the sabbath that you
will have Law Enforcement that respondsing and providing a level of comfort and security to those that are participating in services. Shawn, thank for being here in the studio with me. Joining us now, joe ruben, a member of The Tree Of Life synagogues. This must be very, very difficult for you to witness as it was for Howard Feynman who we heard from earlier who grew up in that synagogue. Yes. Three synagogues actually share that space right now. This morning, there was a baby naming. I have had my three daughters named there in a similar saturday Morning Service of baby naming. The shooter said all jews must
die as he shot indiscriminantly. It is a place of peace and worship, and of love, and family. And it is despicable. Its something that there just arent enough words to describe. Talk about that community, that neighborhood. It looks positively beautiful, singlefamily homes. Im told that it has a number of synagogues in the area. I mean, talk about what it is like there. It seems bucolic and lovely. Squirrel hill is one of the gems of urban america. It is a neighborhood that is thriving in the heart of the city of pittsburgh. It has been a place for families to raise children. But its also ban center for Economic Vitality of pittsburgh and where families during the steel industry, academic
carnegie Mellon University is right down the street. It is a multiethnic neighborhood. It is one that is, yes, very religiously diverse. In terms of the Jewish Community, its known nationally. Its one of the primary jewish communities in the country. Squirrel hill, as a neighborhood, has been long a leader of jewish life and activity. The synagogues are diverse. They are reformed jewish, conservative jewish, orthodox jewish, all different strains within that. The synagogues there who are coexisting comfortably together. You can be there on a saturday morning and see very religious jews walking the neighborhood streets alongside secular jews who may be going to play basketball at the Jewish Community center, the jcc which is large facility right not
heart. And it is a really fantastic urban neighborhood. People just choosing how they want to spend a beautiful saturday morning met with this kind of crime. It is absolutely extraordinary. So these three different areas within the synagogue, you are familiar with it enough that is there one that is the general congregation area, and that there may be separate gatherings for different sort of religious focus . Do they put children in one area . Can you explain that . Sure, typically in the larger synagogue in particular there are multiple venues for prayer. There may be a main sanctuary which is the largest but then there are also side sanctuaries that are smaller where typically you may have a Youth Service going on on shabat. Sorry. So, yeah. Its tough, isnt it. It brings back a lot. Yeah. There are multiple places to worship. And there is three synagogues there sharing the place. So the place is just packed with life, in all different corners. And im sure there are a lot of kids hanging out, not going to services, sitting in the stairwell. And then there are oler families celebrating the baby naming. When you have a Life Cycle Event like a baby naming or a wedding or a bar or bat mitzvah, you attract larger crowds than normal. Normally a shabat service when there is no Life Cycle Event will draw a crowd. But when there is a Life Cycle Event it becomes a magnet of activity and there will be after the service likely a lunch buffet. Just a lot going on there on a saturday morning. I know this is a tough day for you. Thank you for phoning in. We may get back to you. Lets go to wpxis David Johnsonwho is on the scene and listen to what he is reporting. We almost surely know someone inside that building. There was, as i think aaron martin has confirmed, and i heard this from the rabbi, there was whats known as a bris, a ceremonial circumcision that was going on there. That would bring a few more people into the building. Okay. Im understanding from the photographer shes going to zoom in. We are getting reaction here. A large crowd, not just media but other residents who are gathered around here kind of waiting for word from us. And kind of Word Of Mouth on what is the latest as we are waiting for an additional word. Again you just saw Governor Wolf and senator casey walk by. They are being briefed. And as we understand it we are just a couple of minutes away from getting an official briefing. We will have that for you live on channel 11 when it does happen. But thats the latest right now
here at the corner of North Cumberland and murray. Only three or four blocks away from the synagogue in Squirrel Hill. Back to you. Everybody, that was David Johnson of our affiliate wpxi giving a report for the local news audience there. I am joined again by shawn henry who is skin joining me in studio. You are getting updates via texted. N. Y. P. D. Has deployed marked units to synagogues throughout the city. Marked units. Thats a statement. Providing a force, providing comfort and security to those inside those facilities. You have people reporting to houses of worship going in today. We listened to howard and joel just talk. They are congregants inside this sick synagogue. Think about how emotional it is for people gathering for these types of events. I listened earlier to malcolm and Jim Cavanaugh. And they talked about the most
recent incidents this week with the mailings. And this particular incident. And while certainly we have seen a lot of the rhetoric that has been somewhat insightful and this kind of tone around the country it is really too early to connect these two incidents. I dont think people should jump to these conclusions. They very well may be some type of a relation. Maybe not. The investigators are going to follow the leads. They are going to follow the facts. This will be a very thorough investigation. And at the end of the next couple of days, they will have a very good sense because they have got a sub in custody. They will be Exploiteding Social Media and devices Like Computers and telephones. Yeah. They will come up with a lot of information to determine what the motive is. And we will see if it is connected or not. But i think it is much too early to presume that thats the case. Lets talk about the word connection, shawn, because, yes, from a forensics standpoint, from an fbi, your standpoint, investigation, these two may not be connected in terms of
actualities and forensics or whether the two suspects knew each other. That that kind of thing. But just the tenor, the discourse, the divisiveness in this country right now. Is it fair to say that that has permeated the atmosphere and that is something that raises alarm bells within the fbi, win local Law Enforcement, thus having to d