The Jewish congregants were there to celebrate life, but were met by death. Most never had a chance.
Just after 9 a.m. Saturday, suspected gunman Robert Bowers, 46, burst into the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh and, yelling "All Jews must die," killed 11 before himself being wounded and taken into custody.
The list of those killed Saturday included many men and women in their 70s, 80s and even one woman in her 90s.
Many of them where there for a bris, a ceremony that marks the beginning of a baby's journey in the Jewish faith. Others had gathered on this traditionally holy day, the sabbath, to worship, study and pray.
On Sunday, local medical examiner Carl Williams read the names of the dead. "The families are in shock and grieving, please be respectful of their needs, their time and space as they deal with this tragedy," he said.
Those killed were Daniel Stein, 71, Joyce Fienberg, 75, Richard Gottfried, 65, Rose Malinger, 97, Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, brothers Cecil Rosenthal, 59 and David Rosenthal, 54, husband and wife Bernice Simon, 84 and Sylvan Simon, 86, Melvin Wax, 88 and Irving Younger, 69.
Stein, 71, was a member of the New Light Congregation, a conservative Jewish congregation that was one of three who shared space at the synagogue. A new grandfather, he attended services every Saturday and was an active supporter of the community, according to TribLive.
Fienberg was the wife of the late Stephen E. Fienberg, a professor of statistics and social science at Carnegie Mellon University, who died in 2016. They had two sons, Anthony Fienberg of Paris, and Howard Fienberg of Vienna, Va., and several grandchildren, according to her husband’s obituary.
In addition to the 11 dead, six people were injured.
According to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, they were a 61-year-old woman, a 55-year-old man, and a 27-year-old male police officer and a 40-year-old male SWAT officer. Another police officer was treated and released.
Paul Leger, 70, suffered gunshot sounds to his torso in the attack and underwent surgery at the UPMC Presbyterian hospital Saturday, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Leger was a retired nurse and has worked as a chaplain at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center since 2016.
Leger had been scheduled to lead a Saturday morning service at the synagogue, where he was a member of the Dor Hadash congregation, a progressive Reconstructionist Jewish community, according to the Tribune-Review.
Family members, friends and members of the synagogue began replacing their Facebook profile photos with a Stronger Than Hate graphic, a play on the Pittsburgh Steelers football team logo in which the top-most of three four-pointed stars is replaced by the six-pointed Star of David.
This story is developing.