ON THIS DAY: April 28, 2000, Racially motivated 2-hour shooting spree kills 5

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — When French police responded to an altercation in a Paris bar in October 1999, they missed their chance to save lives in Pittsburgh. A woman at the bar had been sucker-punched by a massive American whose defense was that he thought she was Jewish and that he was mentally ill. Police took the man to a Paris psychiatric ward, but he was released.

Six months later, that man, Richard Baumhammers, unleashed his psychotic fury again, shooting a half-dozen innocents. Five of them lost their lives immediately. A sixth victim would die years later as a result of complications from his injuries.

Baumhammers came from a prominent Latvian immigrant family in Mt. Lebanon and played on the high school football team.

After graduating from Kent State University in Ohio, Baumhammers graduated from Cumberland Law School in Alabama and then received a master’s degree in transnational business practice specializing in immigration and international law.

Baumhammers admitted himself to Western Psychiatric Institute in the 1993. He was diagnosed as suffering from a delusional disorder of a persecutional type. He would eventually see eight psychiatrists over a several-year period and try over a dozen medications with varying degrees of compliance, while living back with his parents.

During the late 1990s, Baumhammers traveled internationally several times, including the trip to Paris shortly before the shootings.

On an earlier trip to Latvia, he acquired citizenship and tried to regain properties his family lost to the Soviets. Baumhammers was described as very enthusiastic about his Latvian roots and spent a significant amount of time in the city of Riga in 1997 and 1998 pursuing various business interests.

Baumhammers legally purchased a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver from a store in South Strabane Township on April 30, 1999. Police investigators said that he likely had taken formal firearms training at some point, to develop accuracy.

Convinced that a redistricting of Mt. Lebanon could launch a career in politics, Baumhammers set up what he called the Free Market Party and hired an assistant. His intention was to unseat incumbent Democrat William Coyne. Baumhammers posted a manifesto on his newly created Free Market Party website and denounced immigration as disastrous for whites. He closed down the site in September 1999.

By April 2000, Baumhammers’ psychosis had intensified. Prescription medications were supposed to help suppress his fears of being watched and controlled, but he neglected to take them and tests after his arrest indicated that he had not taken them recently.

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On April 28, 2000, Baumhammers left his parents’ house, walked next door and gunned down their neighbor, Anita Gordon, 63. He set off a Molotov cocktail in the house and then drove away. His Jeep was loaded with boxes of ammunition, three more gasoline bombs and $4,000 cash.

Investigators said Baumhammers went to the Beth El Congregation in Scott Township where Gordon and her family worshiped, where he painted swastikas and the word “Jew” on the wall and shot out the glass doors.

In Scott Town Center, Baumhammers next targeted people at the India Grocer store there. Anil Thakur, 31, was shopping on his lunch hour. He died from his injuries later that night.

The store owner’s brother, Sandip Patel, 25, was working as a manager that day and was shot in the neck and upper back. Patel was paralyzed from the neck down, and died seven years later from complications of pneumonia related to his injuries.

Baumhammers then shot out windows at another synagogue, the Ahavath Achim Congregation in Carnegie.

About a half-hour later and ten miles from his parents’ home, Baumhammers reappeared as police received reports of gunfire at Robinson Town Centre. Baumhammers walked into a Chinese restaurant and gunned down the manager, Ji-ye Sun, 34, and Theo Pham, 27, a Vietnamese cook, in front of customers.

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Another 30 minutes passed before Beaver County dispatchers were called. Garry Lee, 22, an African-American beginning student, was killed while exercising with his white friend at the C.S. Kim School of Karate in Center Township. Baumhammers initially points the gun at Lee’s friend before turning and shooting Lee in the chest.

With police closing in from multiple jurisdictions, Baumhammers drove his black Jeep toward Pittsburgh. Aliquippa police spotted the Jeep and as he crossed the Ohio River into Ambridge, officers surrounded him. Baumshammers surrendered and put up no resistance.

Attorneys and judges alike tried to account for Baumhammers’ mental condition at the time of the shootings. He was universally described by witnesses at all scenes as calm, unhurried and collected.

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Almost a year later, Baumhammers was finally convicted on 19 charges on May 9, 2001. Two days later, the jury sentenced him to death after deliberating for just 20 minutes.

In early 2010, Gov. Ed Rendell signed an execution warrant for Baumhammers, but in late February 2010, Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey A. Manning granted him an indefinite stay of execution.

On Nov. 26, 2019, Baumhammers lost an appeal and remains incarcerated at Greene State Correctional Institute in Franklin Township.

Baumhammers’ crimes came just weeks after another gunman, Ronald Taylor, left three dead. Taylor was also psychotic and targeting his victims based on their race.

OTD: Richard Baumhammers OTD: Richard Baumhammers

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