The final two witnesses were survivor Andrea Wedner and Officer Tim Matson, who was shot several times.

One of the most emotional accounts of the trial came from Wedner, who recalled her final moments with her mother, Rose Mallinger, who did not survive the attack.

Closing arguments are scheduled to begin this morning and jurors could start deliberating.

If Bowers is found guilty, the jury will have to decide if he is sentenced to life in prison or if he’ll receive the death penalty.

WPXI legal Analyst Phil Dilucente says it shouldn’t take jurors long to decide guilt or innocence. And even though jurors may still have questions, those could come in the penalty phase — which he says is much more critical for the defense than the last 12 days — and that it will likely be a longer period of time because there are so many experts expected to testify.

We have a team of reporters inside the courthouse and have live updates throughout the day.

UPDATE 5:00 p.m.: Jury leaves for the day

The jury has left for the day and will return Friday morning to continue deliberations.

UPDATE 2:30 p.m.: The jury has begun deliberating

Judge Colville has sent the jury to begin deliberating. Prior to deliberations, the jurors were advised who would be deliberating and who was considered an alternate. The jurors did not know which category they were in until this point. The judge told the alternate jurors that they may still be called to serve in future phases of the trial. They have now been taken to a conference room and will not talk about the case while the rest of the jury deliberates.

We are now awaiting a verdict. Channel 11 will let you know as soon as the jury reaches a verdict in the WPXI News App.

UPDATE 1:45 p.m.: Defense concludes closing remarks, prosecution presents rebuttal

“We acknowledged on the first day of this trial that this was caused by Robert Bowers and we told you we would offer no excuse or justification for that and we have not done so.”

Elisa Long presents the defense’s closing statement.

“There is no dispute that Bowers entered the TOL synagogue and shot every person he saw, in the process he killed 11 innocent people.”

Long wants to focus on the free exercise of religious belief and intent, reminding the jurors that Judge Colville explained that they should consider Bowers’s conscious intention.

“Why on Earth should we care? What I can tell you at the very onset these are federal charges they are not state homicide charges.”

She asks whether Bowers went to Dor Hadash because they worked with HIAS. She asks if his goal was to stop HIAS from bringing people into the country he considered to be invaders.

Long says the statements Bowers made on Gab.com and what he said to officers show his state of mind.

“Without question, Mr. Bowers posted and reposted images that are disturbing and ugly, they give us some insight into Mr. Bowers sense of reality no matter how distorted it may be.”

Long mentions how he solely focused on the HIAS group.

“He posted HIAS is an enabler of refugees.”

“These are not easy things to hear, but they are his posts and they do reveal his state of mind.”

“He felt he had to act, he had to act right away to in his words prevent the slaughter of my people.”

Long then moves into what Bowers said to officers.

Officer Timmons heard Bowers say he had enough and Jews were killing his children. Officer Miller heard him say “I had to do it.” Officer O’Keefe heard “Invaders are committing genocide on my people.”

Long acknowledges how none of what Bowers said is true and how none of it makes sense but she emphasizes that it is what he believes to be true and why he took such destructive action.

She draws a line, saying he went in to stop Dor Hadash’s support of HIAS, not to stop religious services.

“It was not his intent, purpose or motive. He was motivated by the noncynical and irrational thought that his actions that day somehow and someway save the lives of children, prevent genocide and stop immigration.”

Long said each of the firearm charges has a crime of violence count and it is an obstruction count. She argues to find Bowers guilty of the firearm charges would also find him guilty of religious obstruction charges.

In terms of hate crime counts, Long said there is no question Bowers’s posts showed hatred towards Jews and focuses on how much time he spent online taking in vile content.

“He was a 46-year-old man living alone in Baldwin. The apartment was neat and tidy, he slept on a thin mattress on the floor.”

“How and why did this man who up until October 27th, 2018 live a solitary life wreak the havoc he did?”

“There is no making sense of this senseless act. Mr. Bowers caused extraordinary harm to people.”

“Lives were lost that should have never been lost. Lives damaged that should have never been damaged. We are asking you to look at a very specific piece of these charges.”

“These are the charges the federal government brought and the decisions you as jurors are asked to make.”

Eric Olshan then presented the prosecution’s closing rebuttal arguing that Bowers went into a synagogue where three different congregations were worshipping and acknowledged that he did not just kill people from Dor Hadash.

“Look at the Gab posts, don’t just focus on Dor Hadash.”

“He focused on every Jew that he could find.”

Olshan asks jurors not to focus just on the Gab posts but to consider all of the evidence they have seen over the last two weeks.

“Hate crime charges come down to hate.”

Olshan said the jury should not have to decide that hate was the only reason, just that it was a determinant. Olshan said the posts on Gab do not prove Bowers felt the need to take violent action but prove that he hated Jewish people.

“We are talking about what people have said and believed about Jews for 100 years. Sure he hated them like many other people on Gab because of immigration and refugee, but that wasn’t the only reason. He hated Jews because they were vile, raped and killed children, they worshipped in the synagogue of Satan. It goes on.”

“The defense wants you to believe it’s just narrowed on immigration issues, but HIAS only appeared two times on his GAB account but kike appeared over 400 times and Jews over 2300 times. The defendant hated Jews.”

Olshan said Bowers said he just wants to kill Jews and that the jury should take him at his word.

The prosecution continued, saying the jury had heard just one element of religious obstruction on whether Bowers had the intent to obstruct religion.

“Where did he go on October 27th? Did he go to the border to stop refugees from crossing? No. Did he go to the HIAS office Maryland? No. Instead he got in his car in Baldwin and drove to Squirrel Hill the center of the Jewish universe in Pittsburgh.”

“He went on a Saturday morning and he went at a specific time when the sign out front said we are having worship services. That’s all you really need to know on what he intended to do that morning.”

Olshan said Bowers did not attack out of a need to protect his country and he believes that is the case because Bowers killed with clinical precision. He chose not to kill people engaged in refugee assistance, but people who were practicing their faith.

“It was obvious and he kept hunting looking for more Jews to kill.”

“The defense wants you to ignore all that and put on blinders and look at a couple posts and that his sole intention was to stop them from helping refugees. That’s absurd.”

The prosecution argues that even if Bowers attacked with the purpose of preventing what he considered to be invaders from coming into the country, he is actively preventing Jewish people from practicing their faith because the Torah tells them to help strangers.

“You walk through that door you don’t leave your common sense behind. It’s one of the only things you get to bring to the jury. Use it.”

“Some prayed to God because they thought they were going to die. Dan Leger did. Rabbi Myers did. He was in that bathroom for 40 minutes with one hand on the phone and the other on the doorknob as he prepared to meet his fate.”

Olshan also points out how the defendant did not leave the synagogue to surrender but instead stayed inside, and moved boxes and chairs to prepare to kill more, including police who were not helping refugees.

“When Tim Matson stepped into that room he didn’t ask if he was helping refugees, no he shot to kill putting seven new holes in Matson’s body.”

“The defendant wasn’t worried about stopping refugee resettlement, he wanted to kill.”

Tree of Life had 12 members in the synagogue that day. Dor Hadash had only three people in the building that day and Bowers killed one of them.

The prosecution said the three congregations could no longer exercise their religion in the space ever again with one another.

“Irving Younger wore a yamaka that morning as he practiced his Jewish faith. This is that yamaka torn apart in two different bags. A reminder of what that man did to Irving Younger and ten other people. This is what he did to Irving Younger when he shot him in the head with an AR rifle leaving the man among the carnage. Stopping him from worshipping. Leaving this tattered memory behind among shocks of Younger’s hair.”

“This torn yamaka is a witness of what he did that day.”

“No one can put this yamaka back like it was before. No one has that power.”

“The only justice is a verdict of guilty on every one of the 63 indictments in this case.”

UPDATE 12:08 p.m..: Prosecution concludes closing remarks

Closing arguments from the prosecution are presented by Mary Hahn.

“Tree of Life was a sanctuary for the faithful to build friendships and pray, worship and honor their Jewish faith,” she says.

Hahn walks the jury through the day of the shooting.

On that day, she says, a stranger came into the synagogue not to worship and pray, but to kill. In eight minutes, the defendant tracked down and killed 11 people, half of the people in there that day. She says the defendant used cold and calculated moves.

“He hunted his victims throughout the synagogue on multiple floors in multiple rooms,” Hahn says.

“You know how he pursued and killed congregants as they tried to save others and hid under pews, hugging each other with no chance against his high-velocity rifle,” she says.

“In his own words, ‘All these Jews need to die,’” Hahn says.

She says Bowers made cold, calculated and deliberate choices.

“You now know how he settled on a house of worship and find and kill worshippers,” she says.

“He stopped shooting only because, as he admitted, he ran out of ammunition,” Hahn says.

“The defendant’s actions changed lives forever and ended eleven.”

“In this country, we all have the right to religious freedom, it doesn’t matter if it’s a church, synagogue, mosque or temple,” Hahn says.

“No one is allowed to enter a house of prayer and stop people from praying.”

He intentionally stopped their religious services and tried to stop them from continuing their faith, she says.

When it comes to the hate crimes charges, no one can attack someone because they think they are part of a religious group, Hahn says.

”The defendant injured and killed these people because they are Jewish,” Hahn says.

When it comes to firearm charges, he used a gun his rifle to kill people with malice and forethought, she says.

She urges the jury to remember what you heard from the paramedics, police, experts and the survivors.

“The defendant was caught by Pittsburgh SWAT in the synagogue with the murder weapon.”

Hahn says he outright told SWAT he went to the synagogue to kill Jews.

Hahn says the defendant could have surrendered but found a place to hide in a room that gave him a tactical advantage over law enforcement. “He stopped shooting not because he had a change of heart or any remorse it was because he ran out of gunfire.”

“In just over an hour, he killed 11 worshippers, attempted to kill two more and injured five officers,” she says.

Hahn says he boasted and said he did this all on his own and said all Jews need to die.

This was not a fit of rage or confusion, she says. His hate for Jews is longstanding and deep. He was not a passive user on Gab. He was a regular poster with anti-religious views, she continues.

“He chose to go into the synagogue, he chose to kill, he chose to stop these worshippers from their prayers,” Hahn says.

Hahn says this is a hate crime and he killed them because they are Jewish.

As for the firearm charges, he used a gun to kill them with malice and force, she says.

There are so many charges because of the scope of this destruction.

She says the victims are the 11 deceased congregants, two injured congregants, eight uninjured congregants, and four arriving congregants in the parking lot.

On the charges of religious obstruction, he shot at victims in the Pervin chapel with its stained glass windows, prayer books for rows and pews. There can be no question...that this was a place of worship, she says.

“He undoubtedly intended to stop them from finishing their religious services,” Hahn says.

Every comment he made was that he did it because these people were Jewish, she says.

Hahn talks about his guns and holsters that crossed state lines and says he used his phone to post on Gab just minutes before the attack.

“These officers were shot solely because they responded to Tree of Life,” she says.

“Every time he pulled the trigger to kill, the defendant had the time to reconsider, but he never did and continued to hunt through the synagogue,” Hahn says. ‘That’s textbook premeditation.”

Every action taken by the defendant, his words, his plan overwhelmingly proves he acted in hate, she says.

“He committed a mass murder in a synagogue, creating a place full of bloody prayer shawls and damaged prayer books,” Hahn says.

The defendant made sure the bullets hit the targets, she says.

At 9:45 a.m., it seemed like any other Saturday morning. By 11:13, just about 90 minutes later, when the defendant was captured and handcuffed, everything had changed at the Tree of Life Synagogue, she says.

“We ask that you return the verdict after the overwhelming amount of evidence. Hold this defendant accountable for those who could not testify: Joyce Feinberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, Irving Younger.”

UPDATE 10:23 a.m.: Judge finishes jury instructions

The judge has finished instructing the jury. He’s in a sidebar now with the defense and prosecution. There will be a 15-minute break and then the court will reconvene for closing arguments.

UPDATE 9:03 a.m.: Judge ‘charges’ jury before closing arguments

The judge is “charging” the jury, providing instructions before closing arguments are presented.

The jury is expected to start deliberations this afternoon.

Watch for Team 11 coverage from court today as closing arguments begin.

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