Downstairs i guess and barricaded themselves in the basement. My kids away at school, and hes watching this on the news. Hes got all his friends hes worried about, family. I cant tell him everybodys okay because i dont know. We simply cannot accept this violence as a normal part of american life. These senseless acts of violence are not who we are as pennsylvanians. Theyre not who we are as americans. Hello, everyone, im alex witt with the breaking news as we come on the air this hour, 7 00 p. M. In the eastern and 4 00 p. M. Out west. There are new details coming in now about the shooting at the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh. As of now, authorities have confirmed 11 deaths, six others are injured including four responding officers, two Police Officers, two s. W. A. T. Team members. The shooting is now being investigated by the fbi as a hate crime, and right now the Pittsburgh Community is uniting tonight in the wake of this tragedy. You can see hundreds have gathered at a vigil to honor those who lost their lives. Again, 11 people woke up this morning, went to shabat services at the tree of life synagogue never to leave or go home again. The authorities have identified the gunman as Robert Bowers a 46yearold man taken into custody now and transported to a hospital with some unspecified injuries. Officials say the shooter could be charged for these heinous acts as early as today. We do expect him to be charged with federal hate crimes. The president has condemned the killings as being pure evil and wicked. He is now holding a Campaign Rally in illinois as we speak. Heres what he had to say at the top of his remarks in murfreesboro. The jews have endured terrible persecution, ask you know that. Weve all read it. Weve studied it. Theyve gone through a lot, and those seeking their destruction we will seek their destruction. When you have crimes like this, whether its this one or another one on another group, we have to bring back the Death Penalty. They have to pay the ultimate price. They cant do this. They cant do this to our country. We must draw a line in the sand and say very strongly never again. The president talking about bringing back the Death Penalty when, in fact, we have many states across the country including pennsylvania, which already recognizes the Death Penalty. Lets go now to nbcs ron mott. Hes on the scene in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, which was the site of so much tragedy some nine hours ago. Ron, i know its a sobering evening there. The weather doesnt help at all because it is dismal and gray, which must reflect the emotions of everybody there in that Community Behind you . Reporter this rainy dreary night sort of reflects the mood in this city. This city is in shock, and especially for the folks who live in this neighborhood in Squirrel Hill. Its a largely jewish neighborhood and this synagogue is where this carnage took place. Tree of life is an anchor of this community, and three congregations celebrate their faith at this synagogue, two of them have just come together, and this sort of a trend in the jewish faith where congregations are coming together to share resourc resources, to share love for one another, faith in god. What happened this morning was horrific. We spoke to a gentleman whose wife was walking by the synagogue when this all unfolded, and she is obviously very shaken up, was not injured, but was just too disturbed to talk to us tonight. That is what this community is dealing with, just the horrific idea that a man could walk into a synagogue. People celebrating their faith and be gunned down in this way. As we mentioned, there are three congregations there celebrating. We believe that the shooting took place in the third floor classroom. There were also people down in the basement, ask onnd once the heard the commotion they sheltered in place. One of the questions among the many is did he have any previous understanding of the layout of the synagogue. Did he know specifically where to go . Because there was to be a scheduled classroom taking place this that room where the shooting happened this morning, but it was canceled. But the room was still being used for other purposes. There was a baby naming ceremony. Authorities tell us that no children were involved in any of the injuries or fatalities here. And as you mentioned, alex, the first responding Police Officers who got here probably saved a lot of lives because the gentleman apparently was on his way out of the synagogue and then actually retreated back indoors. He injured two of those officers and then s. W. A. T. Units were shortly arriving thereafter, and two of those officers were also injured. All four of those Police Officers are said to be stable tonight, which is indeed great news. One of the two others who was injured is a gentleman who sustained some very serious critical injuries. We dont have an update on his condition since the 4 00 Eastern Time Press conference, but, again, to state the obvious here, this community is reeling from the violence that took place here early this morning shortly after the services got underway around 9 45. The shooting, the first calls coming in about ten minutes thereafter. A horrible day here on the east side of pittsburgh. A very horrible day. There certainly will be an upending the to schedule that you know. There are oftentimes school age congregants within jewish communities who will then go on sunday mornings for further instruction, to their sunday school class as well. I should imagine the tree of life synagogue and any classes will not be in session tomorrow given that it is still probably a crime scene in terms of the investigation. Ron mott, thank you very much for wrapping things up for us there in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Nbcs matt bradley is joining us live from that vigil that is taking place in pittsburgh. There looks like to be several hundred people there behind, and most of them with umbrellas standing in the dreary, drizzly weather there. Talk about what youre seeing and the people with whom youre speaking . Reporter weve been here for a little over 30 minutes. Its been hugely emotional. There was singing. There was chanting. There was praying. There were more than a thousand people here of all faiths. As you mentioned, this is in front of a Presbyterian Church near the synagogue that was attacked this morning. Im here with one of the organizers. Shes a high school senior, cody murphy. Shes one of the main organizers of this march. I wanted to ask you, what inspired you to do this . It happened really close to my house, just a block away, so i was kind of aware the whole time that it was happening, and you just feel kind of helpless. I ran over to a friends house to make sure she was okay, and we could hear the shots, and we could see the people running, and we could see all the Police Officers, and we just felt helpless, and we felt like we had to do something sfwlo. Reporter and it was you and a couple of friends, all high School Students, all young people. Yes. Reporter you managed to bring together the entire community. Did you expect this many people to come . No. I have no idea how this many people heard about it. Reporter how do you think they heard about it . We posted about it on social media. We heard that some tv stations like reported on it and some radio stations, so but i definitely was not expecting this many people to come out. Reporter it was quite an accomplishments really impressive actually having this many people. I was standing here, and it was so emotional. I was choking up, and the crew was choking up the whole time listening to people talking about this community. It really is people of all faiths from this Community Coming together. Its a tightknit neighborhood. This is where mr. Rogers lived and died. This is kind of mr. Rogers neighborhood. It really lives up to that ideal of just a really beautiful american neighborhood. And again, just a really trying time for this tightknit place. Alex. An ideal idyllic neighborhood. Nbc news justice correspondent Pete Williams is joining me with more. We had hoped to get those charges filed. Whats the latest on that . Still waiting for them. Its not clear whether theyre going to be charged, filed today or tomorrow, but they will will federal hate crime charges. We had been told that earlier, and then attorney general Jeff Sessions said in a Public Statement that they would be filed shortly calling the crime utterly reprehensible, and the charges that theyre looking at here as we understand it are basically a charge that makes it a crime to interrupt a federally protected right singling people out because of their, among other things their religion, so clearly the right of worship, of Free Expression of religion, and that crime carries the maximum penalty of death. Thats the charge thats going to be filed, death upon conviction, of course. In the meantime, authorities are telling us a little more about how they think this happened today. They say that Robert Bowers walked into that synagogue about 10 30 this morning. Lets see if thats the right time. No, sorry, just before 10 00, at 9 54, and thats when they got the first calls. The Police Officers arrived one minute later, and they say that he was armed with a semiautomatic weapon, although many people say that they heard automatic fire. Some witnesses say they heard automatic fire, and some of the police referred to it as automatic fire. Were going to have to see if he modified a gun illegally to make it fire automatically or used a bump stock, which as you recall is what the gunman used in the Las Vegas Shooting to make those semiautomatic rifles fire as though they were automatic. The point there is you can fire off a lot more rounds more quickly if you do that to these rifles, and also three hand guns. We dont know which weapons he used in the shooting. Thats going to take some time to determine. Owe talked about that synagogue being opened again. Thats going to be days from now. The work that goes into reconstructing a shooting like this when its so chaotic, that takes a long time. That synagogue is not going to be open, my guess is, for several days. He was in there for 20 minutes, came back out, engaged the police. The Police Chased him back in. He was hiding, and in these two exchanges of gunfire with the police, four officers were wounded, and he was wounded, said to be now in fair condition with multiple gunshot wounds. Among the other two people who were injured, one was a 60yearold woman. She had what they described as soft tissue injuries, and the other person that you heard ron make a reference to is a 70yearold man who was wounded in the torso, and as of three hours ago was said to be in critical condition, alex. Pete, can i ask you with regard to the charges that will come. These will be filed in federal court, but cant you also file in state court as well . Absolutely. And it may be that the charges are filed in both places. I suspect that whats happening here is and this is just a guess based on how these things have worked in the past is you have a local Police Department that is simply overwhelmed dealing with its own community, and more than happy to have the federal help in doing the work of compiling these charges, putting together a charge to get him held and get into court. Whether hes ultimately tried in federal court or state court probably will be determined down the road. The state, of course, can file separate charges, can file murder charges. Theres no straightup murder charge in the federal system, but there is this hate crime charge that can be filed. This gets the Legal Process started. It gives them authority to continue to hold him pending trial and whether hes ultimately tried on state or federal charges will be resolved down the road. Pete williams, as always many thanks for your insight and expertise, in particular in a story like this. Right now im joined on the phone by zachary weiss, who attends the tree of life synagogue. Fortunately zachary was not there this morning. However, his father was, and so first question to you, zachary with my thanks for joining me. Is your father okay . Well, thank you for the platform and the opportunity. Unfortunately that were able to talk it has to be over this story, but yes, my father is 100 safely home and okay. Tell me what your father has spoken about. Im sure youve asked him many questions about what the experience was like . Sure, well, the first thing that happened was, as a synagogue its a place of worship and its welcome to everyone, and its understanding that the front door was unlocked. The gunman walked himself right in, and all of a sudden you heard a loud noise and a couple congregants to investigate because it could have been a Senior Citizen that had a hard fall. It could have been a heavy piece of equipment or material that just fell, but then you heard a couple more of the same sounds, and there was no mistaking that it was an active shooter situation, and the synagogue has been through something called alice, which was an alert system in case there was an active shooter and a protocol that several synagogue key members including my father went through that training for last year. It really helped. My father was helping out the rabbi. He was a little under the weather, so they both actually were able to help guide the congregation into a safe place, and there actually are two other synagogues that take residence in the tree of life synagogue. One of them actually was having a bris at the time. My dad actually went down there and made sure they were hidden safely. When he went back upstairs during that timetable, he estimated he was about five feet away from casings that were being fired. He did not get a viewpoint of the gunman at any time during this time period, and then when he went back up to his congregation, there was nobody that was in harms way, so they evacuated. Zachary, we are of the understanding that the shooting took place in a third floor classroom as it has been described. Youre familiar, certainly, with the tree of life synagogue and the various aspects of it. Does that make sense to you . Do you know what would be going on on a shabbat morning on the third floor in one of those rooms . The synagogue itself, the way it was laid out with the three congregations. The one was on the main floor by the pavilion. The bris was all the way downstairs and then the tree of life service itself was in the main area. The extent of what i know is what my father told me and my mom was actually on the scene fairly quickly somewhat close by, and my dad had evacuated at that point when he believed that everyone was safe. So unfortunately i cannot speak to where geographically he moved about the synagogue, but its entirely plausible that the gunman was able to successfully move his way around since at the time im sure there might have been a lack or complete lack of security to stop his progress during which time active shooting you have to hide as best as you can. I was fortunate, when i actually was the one that told my mom that it happened, and at first we called my father, and then we said, no, maybe we shouldnt do that. If theres an active shooter and he has his phone, that might be giving away his location. Right, yeah. So we hung up the phone. And my mom quickly drove down in her leopard print pajamas, and she drove down and two minutes into her drive my dad called on the custodians phone and that he was safe and to let my mom know. And unfortunately she had forgotten her phone, so i went from oh, my gosh this is happening is my dad okay, to oh, my gosh, maybe my mom is in more harms way than my dad is and oh, my gosh, are they safe. Finally i was able to get my moms password right, and i was able to call the custodian, and they were both safe and went safely home. I remember giving my dad the biggest longest hug i had ever given him and the first words out of my mouth were i love you. You have me reduced to nearly tears. It was probably only the matter of a few minutes but it probably seemed like eternity. Before i let you go, may i ask you to comment on a statistic we had gotten here at msnbc in that more than 80 of those in your community there, Squirrel Hill residents said they had some concern or were very concerned about the rise of antisemitism in the area. Many of them having reported incidents of antisemitic experiences, insults, stereotypes and attacks of the like. Are you of that 80 . Can you speak to those concerns . I think what i can speak to is i think were in a community that needs to love each other and love thyself and to honor thy neighbor and i dont think generally speaking thats happening, and im assuming thats why the 80 might be happening. Many of my efforts are about the 11 that unfortunately have passed on and wont be able to see their families tonight, and that weighs on my mind. Im sure that certainly might even increase the statistic beyond the 80 point you pointed out as well. Which is a tragedy in itself. Zachary weiss, thank you so very much for phoning in. Blessings on your family and thankful that your father is okay, and given the horrific concern you must have had today. Thank you for your time. Thank you, i appreciate it. Were going to take you all to murfreesboro, illinois, that is where the president continues at a Campaign Rally. Hes been speaking for a bit over an hour now starting off with comments about the pittsburgh shooting. Lets play a little bit of that. We have to bring back the Death Penalty. They have to pay the ultimate price. They have to pay the ultimate price. They cant do this. They cant do this to our country. We must draw a line in the sand and say very strongly never again strongly never agai take your razor, yup. Alright, up and down, never side to side, shaquem. You got it . Come on, get back. Quem, you a second behind your brother, stay focused. Cant nobody beat you, cant nobody beat you. Hard work baby, it gonna pay off. Yo