US

Truck driver convicted of killing 11 worshippers in America’s deadliest antisemitic attack

A truck driver has been convicted of fatally shooting 11 worshippers at a synagogue in the deadliest attack on Jewish people in the US.

Seven other victims were wounded, including five police officers, after 50-year-old Robert Bowers opened fire with an assault rifle and other weapons in Pittsburgh.

Bowers was charged with 63 counts, including hate crimes resulting in death and obstruction of the free exercise of religion resulting in death.

A jury found him guilty of all charges at the US District Court in the Pennsylvania city.

He could be sentenced to death or face life in prison.

The guilty verdict was not in doubt after his lawyers conceded at the beginning of the trial that he attacked and killed worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on 27 October 2018.

All 12 jurors must vote unanimously in order to sentence Bowers to death with the penalty phase set to last several weeks.

His lawyers had offered a guilty plea in return for a life sentence but prosecutors refused, choosing instead to take the case to trial and pursue the death penalty.

Most of the victims’ families expressed support for the decision.

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