‘I did this myself’: Officers describe confrontation with Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting defendant

CNN — When the rifle-toting suspect surrendered after gunning down 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018, police officers tried to ascertain whether he had an accomplice, falsely telling him they had already caught “his boy.” “I did this myself,” the shooter told the officers, claiming sole ownership of the carnage, according to Stephen Mescan, a SWAT operator and tactical commander. “I saw that man right there.” Identifying Bowers in court, Smidga told a prosecutor: “He’s sitting there with the blue colored shirt.” Smidga, one of more than a dozen witnesses during the first full week of testimony, was the first to identify the defendant in the courtroom. He described the suspect as “angry,” and “very direct.” At one point, Mescan testified, Bowers started to crawl toward one officer, his hands visible. Clint Thimons, another SWAT operator, testified that he first told Bowers he needed to “show himself to us so I knew the threat was over.” On audio from the scene, played in court, Thimons is heard telling Bowers, “Crawl out or you will die.” Thimons testified that when asked why he carried out the rampage, Bowers responded that “he had had enough.” The officer said Bowers, in a matter-of-fact, conversational tone, claimed Jews were killing children and “all Jews had to die.” Prosecutors release videos and images from crime scene Throughout the first week of trial testimony prosecutors have released video of survivors in police vehicles and images from the scene, including a Jewish prayer book damaged with a bullet hole, shattered glass on the ground outside the synagogue, and a kippah and prayer shawl on a carpeted floor inside.