PITTSBURGH \u2014 On any given Saturday, the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill bustles with locals having brunch, shopping or sitting down for a hot\u2026<\/b>
\nPITTSBURGH \u2014 On any given Saturday, the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill bustles with locals having brunch, shopping or sitting down for a hot drink at the locally owned caf\u00e9, the Coffee Tree.
On this Saturday, the neighborhood is an eerie ghost town, with not a soul dotting the main shop-lined street, Forbes Avenue.
Just a couple blocks away, the bodies of 11 people lie dead within the Tree of Life synagogue, a house of worship for three separate congregations located right in the heart of the community.
Six people were sent to local hospitals with injuries.
The alleged killer is 48-year-old Robert Bowers. It is believed he acted alone.
Standing on a street corner, his face etched with disbelief, Roger Zimmerman says he and his family moved to the area in the spring and already felt deeply part of it.
\u201cJonathan Perlman is a friend of ours, so is his wife and daughter,\u201d he says of Rabbi Perlman, whose New Light congregation holds services at Tree of Life.
\u201cThis community welcomes you very quickly. It is a very tight Jewish community. I feel deeply affected by this.\u201d
Zimmerman is among several neighbors gathering along nearby Murray Avenue, some looking for answers, most looking for comfort from other neighbors and even strangers, grasping each other in their grief. Many are unable to talk, but feel the need to hold on to something better than what has just happened here.
David Johnson lives just a couple of blocks from here. A long-time news anchor, he was one of the first on the scene to cover it live for the local NBC affiliate, WPXI.
Walking away from his on-air update, he is barely able to hold in the grief and uncertainty he feels for his fellow Jewish friends.
Suddenly, his composure breaks under the weight of the news. The tears flow, his voice waivers. \u201cThinking of all of this, all of this, makes me want to cry right now.\u201d
And he does.
\u201cI know I\u2019m going to know somebody. I know I am. And I don\u2019t know who it\u2019s going to be. And my heart breaks for that.
\u201cI think of all the people around America and around the world when something terrible happens, and they\u2019re waiting to find out if their family is in there. I know my family is not in there, but I know I know friends. The feeling that people have when there\u2019s some mass event like this\u2026 they\u2019re waiting for an airline or a police department or an agency to tell them what\u2019s going on and that sort of dread. I feel it now,\u201d Johnson says.
\u201cI feel it now.\u201d
Onlookers stare blankly as news organizations close down their staging area to move to county headquarters for the next update. A home decorated with child-like zombies takes on a grotesque backdrop as members of the SWAT team march in single file back to their vehicles.
\u201cI cannot believe that I am seeing this in my neighborhood,\u201d says Zimmerman as they somberly pass by.
Paul Klein, who is standing on Murray Avenue, watching the scene, says, \u201cThis cannot change who we are.\u201d
The University of Pittsburgh professor had his bar mitzvah at Tree of Life as a young man and has lived in the neighborhood since he was born.
Filled with the same uncertainty, the same sense of doom as his neighbors, knowing people he cared about were present when the gunman opened fire, he says it again.
\u201cThis just cannot change us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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