U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will travel to Pittsburgh, state of Pennsylvania, on Tuesday and visit families of victims of Saturday's shooting massacre at a synagogue that left 11 people dead, the White House announced Monday.
The president will go "to express the support of the American people and to grieve with the Pittsburgh community," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told a briefing Monday afternoon.
At least 11 people were killed and six others were injured after a gunman opened fire Saturday morning inside the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
The gunman, identified as 46-year-old Pennsylvania resident Robert Bowers, appeared in federal court in a wheelchair and handcuffs in Pittsburgh on Monday after being released from a hospital where he was treated for gunshot wounds he had taken during a gun battle with police.
Bowers, charged with 29 counts of violence and firearms offenses, was ordered held without bail for a preliminary hearing on Thursday, when prosecutors will outline their case against him.
"This atrocity was a chilling act of mass murder, act of hatred and above all an act of evil," Sanders told reporters. "We have a duty to confront anti-Semitism in all its forms."
She also rejected claims that Trump had any responsibility for the shooting or a recent wave of mail bombs sent to critics of the administration, amid renewed scrutiny of the president's rhetoric, especially his criticism against some news outlets.
"The only person responsible for carrying out either of these heinous acts were the individuals who carried them out," Sanders said.
The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting is believed to be the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.
