Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial: Survivors testify about hiding during attack
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Survivors from the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting took the stand on Thursday, testifying with their stories of escape during the trial's third day.
The alleged gunman is accused of killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue, which housed three congregations, nearly five years ago on Oct. 27, 2018. It was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
Testimony day 3
After his congregation gathered in the sanctuary for Saturday morning services, New Light Rabbi Jonathan Perlman testified he heard the shattering of glass followed by gunfire and immediately warned his congregants.
"I said, 'We're in danger. I want you to follow me. We're going to hide in this storage closet,'" he said.
In a then-darkened closet, Perlman, Carol Black, Barry Werber and 88-year-old Mel Wax, who was hard of hearing and may not have understood the danger, huddled. At a lull in the fire, Wax told Perlman, "'Whatever it was it must be over. I want to see what happened.' I said, 'Please don't, Mel. Stay inside.' He wouldn't listen to me."
Wax stayed for a time and it was Perlman who left to see about others. But Wax did eventually wander outside out of the closet and was shot and killed by the gunman. Perlman met up with Stephen Weiss from the Tree of Life congregation, who also looking to help people.
"He is a wonderful man of courage to think of others instead of himself," Perlman said.
Gunfire continue and at that point, Perlman said he became "very scared" and found a door he had never seen before, which led outside, where he found a police officer.
"I told him about the people hiding inside. He told me quote, 'to get the hell out of here.'"
Longtime Tree of Life congregation member Audrey Glickman was beginning services in the Pervin Chapel, singing the psalms in Hebrew with David Rosenthal who with his brother Cecil were known as "the boys."
"David attached himself to me delightfully. He would come to me and start the service. He would join me in singing. He was always singing, full-throated and with vigor," she said.
There was a crash of broken glass and what she called "the unmistakable sound of gunfire." She heard Bernice Simon scream that her husband Sylvan had been shot. Along with congregation member Joe Charny, she grabbed David and took him behind the altar area where there was a door and a stairway.
"I was explaining to him we had to hide and be quiet. But he kept saying, 'I have to call my house.' He was completely upset. He did not want to go with Joe and me up the steps, and he ran back," she said.
David and Cecil Rosenthal, Irv Younger, Rose Mallinger, Bernice and Sylvan Simon were all in the Pervin Chapel that morning. All would die in the attack. Audrey Glickman and Joe Charny would start to make their way through the maze of the synagogue, finding a room with clumps of sheets and clothes in laundry piles.
"We laid down on the floor and got under our prayer shawls so we would look like the other bags of clothing. We didn't know how many people were attacking. It could have been a whole army for all we knew," she said.
Charny, a World War II veteran, would later tell Glickman he had briefly made eye contact with the gunman and stared down the barrel of his rifle. "He said nothing like this had ever happened to him, and I thought that was quite a statement."
The two escaped, but Charny die earlier this year of natural causes before this trial began.
"He really wants to be here to testify," she said. "I'm sure this even took years off his life."
Daniel Mead and his partner Michael Smigda were at the Squirrel Hill station just two blocks away when the call came in about a shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue.
"We went the front of the building," Mead testified. "You hug the walls. Go from point to point and see what you can see."
Mead came face-to-face with the gunman through a glass door.
"When I stepped out, I saw a man posted up at me with a rifle. A white guy is all I know. I'm standing here. This all took a half a second. Started shooting. I remember the first bullet coming through the glass at me."
He said the bullet went through his wrist and exploded his hand. "I lifted up my hand like this. It was like a rag doll. My hand came down and it was dangling. I said, 'don't look good.'"
He was asked if he said anything.
"The f-word. Over and over. If there's a tape in here, put on your earmuffs," he said.
Mead radioed in that he had been hit and later walked to an arriving ambulance. But his hand never healed and he is now a former Pittsburgh police officer on permanent disability.
Recapping the trial
After gunshots began echoing through the synagogue, three members of the New Light congregation -- Melvin Wax, Carol Black and Barry Werber -- hid in a storage closet. After a long pause in the shooting, Mel Wax ventured outside.
"At that point, I heard a gunshot," Werber testified Wednesday. "Mel Wax fell back into the room. I saw the figure of a person step over the body and step back."
Black said she could see the shadow of the gunman move back and forth.
"I just remained calm," she told the court. "I just stayed calm. If I was calm, I reassured myself that nothing would happen to me. I would be safe, and he would go away."
They were just two of several survivors testifying Wednesday about the horrific attack. Nurse and survivor Dan Leger was with his friend and physician Jerry Rabinowitz when they heard the shots.
"Jerry looked at me and said 'Oh, damn,'" Leger testified. "We looked at each other and we knew we needed to do something to help so we moved in the direction of the gunfire. That was perhaps a stupid thing to do, but that's what we did."
Both men were shot, Rabinowitz fatally. Leger said he knew he was close to dying. "I viewed my life, and I thought about the wonder of it all. The beauty of it. All the happiness I had experienced in my life. The joy of having two beautiful sons and a beautiful wife. I was ready. I was ready to go."
There is little question about the defendant's guilt. Rather, the case is about whether he will get the death penalty. In her opening statements, defense attorney Judy Clarke readily admitted that the defendant was responsible for the carnage, calling his actions immeasurable and inexcusable.
Most of the victim's families have said they support the death penalty in this case.
Support is available for those in need during the trial
If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health effects from the trial, go to 1027healingpartnership.org to find help resources. As always, call 911 to report threats.
Phone: 412-697-3534
Email: info@1027HealingPartnership.org
Website: 1027healingpartnership.org
More resources can be found here.