The perpetrator of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre had a deeply unstable life from childhood through his adult years.
Porterfield’s second day of testimony focused on Bowers’ teen and adult years. He showed some improvement around age 13 after an extended hospitalization in a juvenile mental health unit, but he returned to a highly unstable home and self-threatening behavior. He threatened or attempted suicide multiple times in his teens, including by setting himself on fire, Porterfield said.
While Porterfield did not formally analyze Bowers or diagnose him with a mental illness, she cited evidence of his deteriorating mental health from his long history of suicidal threats and attempts, psychiatric hospitalizations and prescriptions for antidepressants. In an ominous foreshadowing of the conspiratorial thinking behind the attack, Bowers said decades ago that he kept a gun in case the United Nations “blue hats” came, according to a co-worker Porterfield cited. Bowers, his own attorneys acknowledge,out of a belief that Jews were helping to bring immigrants and cause a purported genocide of the white race.
Under cross-examination Thursday, Porterfield conceded that most people who have terrible childhoods do not harm others, and that being traumatized does not justify traumatizing others. She cited evidence that Bowers did have friendships, paid bills on time and held positions of responsibility, including as a commercial truck driver and home health aide.from Wednesday about Bowers' highly destabilized youth. Bowers' father choked and threw his mother downstairs when she was pregnant with him. His father left the family and killed himself while facing a rape charge.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Pittsburgh synagogue attack survivors testify about overcoming wounds both physical and emotionalSurvivors of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue attack are testifying to the severe physical and emotional injuries they suffered during the deadliest antisemitic massacre in U.S. history
Read more »
How the death penalty phase of the Pittsburgh synagogue gunman's trial might play outThe federal trial of a 50-year-old truck driver convicted of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history is in its third and final phase
Read more »
Pittsburgh synagogue attack survivors testify about overcoming physical and emotional woundsSurvivors of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue attack have testified to the severe physical and emotional injuries they suffered during the deadliest antisemitic massacre in U.S. history. The testimony Wednesday came in the sentencing phase of the trial of Robert Bowers, who was convicted last month of killing 11 worshippers and could face the death penalty. Officer Tim Matson, who was shot in the head and body, spoke of being in a “dark place” emotionally. But he has drawn support from friends and family, as well as inspiration from an unlikely buddy: a resilient weed in his yard. Bowers’ lawyers presented testimony from a clinical psychologist who says Bowers was exposed to extraordinary risk and instability as a child.
Read more »
Pittsburgh synagogue attack survivors testify about overcoming physical and emotional woundsSurvivors of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue attack have testified to the severe physical and emotional injuries they suffered during the deadliest antisemitic massacre in U.S. history.
Read more »
How the death penalty phase of the Pittsburgh synagogue gunman's trial might play outThe federal trial of a 50-year-old truck driver convicted of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history is in its third and final phase.
Read more »
Synagogue gunman had traumatic childhood and couldn’t function as an adult, defense expert testifiesThe perpetrator of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre had a deeply unstable life from childhood through his adult years
Read more »