‘Psychotic’ synagogue shooter thought he deserved a parade, medals, expert testifies
Psychologist says Robert Bowers was schizophrenic, backing mental health defense, but also notes he delayed attack to avoid kids and worried about a parking ticket during massacre
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — The man who gunned down 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue thought he deserved medals and a parade for perpetrating the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack, a psychologist testified Thursday, calling the killer “blatantly psychotic.”
Testifying for the defense, Richard Rogers, a University of North Texas forensic psychologist, said Robert Bowers was pleased with the 2018 rampage at Tree of Life synagogue but expressed regret that he didn’t kill more people.
“He was proud of it,” said Rogers, who evaluated Bowers for nearly 20 hours over four days last year and took the stand Thursday in the penalty phase of Bowers’ trial.
Rogers testified that Bowers suffers from schizophrenia, a serious brain disorder whose symptoms include delusions, and his thinking during the attack was impaired because of it.
“He did not just believe [himself] to be correct, he believed it absolutely had to be done,” Rogers said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Bowers, 50, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, was convicted this month of killing members of three congregations who had gathered at Tree of Life on Oct. 27, 2018, for Sabbath services and Torah study. He also wounded two worshippers and five police officers.
Defense lawyers are trying to persuade a jury to spare his life, while federal prosecutors are seeking a death sentence.
Bowers’ lawyers are trying to show that his ability to form an intent to kill was impaired by mental illness and his delusional view that he could stop a genocide of white people by killing Jews.
Prosecutors say it was antisemitism that motivated Bowers to kill. He ranted incessantly on social media about his hatred of Jewish people before the 2018 attack and told police at the scene that “all these Jews need to die.”
“A lot of people are willing to express, particularly on social media, extreme views. This is different. This is spending months of your life,” Rogers said. “This became his life.”
Under cross-examination Thursday, Rogers said Bowers was “goal-oriented,” and started planning an attack on Jewish people six months before he stormed the synagogue. He said Bowers had also considered attacking a Jewish Community Center and an unnamed, “high-level” Jewish woman in Cleveland.
According to Rogers, Bowers initially planned on carrying out the attack a week earlier, but after looking into the synagogue’s schedule, thought there would be too many children there, which he feared would harm the “optics” of his attack.
On the day of the attack, Bowers drove by both the synagogue and a JCC before deciding on the house of worship, Rogers said.
He testified that when the gunman arrived, he initially worried about getting in trouble for parking in a handicapped spot.
On Wednesday, Dr. Siddhartha Nadkarni, who performed a neurological examination of Bowers in 2021, told jurors that he diagnosed Bowers with schizophrenia as well as epilepsy.
He claimed Bowers had a “very serious mental health history” from childhood and a “markedly abnormal” brain.
On Tuesday, three local doctors who reviewed the results of various brain scans of Bowers told the jury they found them to be largely normal with some signs of possible seizures or other problems.
