Dan Leger thought he was dying.

Moments earlier on the morning of Oct. 27, 2018, Leger had been shot in the abdomen during services for the Dor Hadash congregation inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill.

The long-time palliative care nurse recognized his symptoms — mounting internal pressure; shallow, rapid breathing; drooling.

“I felt that I was leaving,” Leger testified Wednesday during the second day of Robert Bowers’ federal trial.

Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, is charged with 63 counts in connection with the killing of 11 people during worship services at the Tree of Life synagogue building, which housed the Tree of Life, New Light and Dor Hadash congregations. The government is seeking the death penalty.

Those killed in the attack were Richard Gottfried, 65; Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan, 86; brothers David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59; Dan Stein, 71; Irving Younger, 69; Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Joyce Fienberg, 75; Melvin Wax, 87; and Rose Mallinger, 97.

As Leger felt his condition worsening after he was shot, he said he began to pray and recount his life.

“I thought about the wonder of my life, the beauty of it. All the happiness I had in my life,” Leger, 75, testified. “The joy of having two wonderful sons, a wonderful wife, and also a wife before that.”

“I prayed for forgiveness for those I have wronged in my life. I was ready to go.”

Then Leger said he saw a person in camouflage pants walk by him. He said he thought to himself, “Either this is a helper or this is the shooter.”

Leger reached up to the figure. It turned out to be a medic.

“This one’s alive,” the medic shouted, according to Leger.

Day 3 of PGH Synagogue trial will start soon. Court has released evidence from yesterday, including the image below of the staircase that Dan Legler collapsed on after he was shot in the abdomen. His yarmulke can be seen on the stairs. Full story here: https://t.co/sFWYhq7cRe pic.twitter.com/Mt45A2znQq

— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) June 1, 2023

Leger, one of two congregants to be shot and survive, was one of six witnesses to testify Wednesday.

Leger, who has worked as a pediatric and palliative care nurse and chaplain, said his faith is an anchor of his life. He’d been a member of Dor Hadash since the 1970s.

The morning of the shooting, Leger said, he was in the room his congregation used for services, talking to Rabinowitz and Martin Gaynor, another member of the congregation, when they heard a loud sound outside.

“Jerry looked at me, and said, ‘Oh, Dan,’” Leger said. “We knew instinctively what we needed to do was try to help.

“We moved toward the gunfire.”

Leger said he lost sight of Rabinowitz. He did not have his cellphone because of the Sabbath, so he moved toward a phone in the lobby to call 911. Before he could get to it, he was shot.

He felt internal pressure that gradually increased into excruciating pain.

As he lay on the stairwell between the ground level and second floor of the building, Leger said he heard the person he believed to be the shooter say the word “magazine” multiple times.

Leger, who suffered serious injuries to his bladder, pelvis and intestines, did not speak or move.

“I thought if the shooter realized I wasn’t dead, he’d come back and finish the job,” he said.

He estimated that he was on the stairwell for 45 minutes before being rescued. Leger said he didn’t lose consciousness.

Gaynor also testified Wednesday.

He recounted how he, Leger and Rabinowitz were laughing and joking when they first heard the shots.

They left the sanctuary together.

“I feel like we all had the same understanding, and somebody might need some help,” Gaynor, 68, said.

As they heard shots in the hallway, Gaynor, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said he heard a woman scream.

“I turned around, and I was running the other way,” he said, adding that he previously participated in active shooter training that taught him to “run, hide, fight.

“I didn’t think. It just happened.”

Gaynor made it to the synagogue’s main doors facing Wilkins Avenue and ran outside. He kept going until he found a woman returning to her home and asked if she could call 911.

It wasn’t until later that Gaynor said he found a scab on the inside of his right elbow and a corresponding hole in the shirt he’d been wearing that day. His arm had a blue line across it that hadn’t been there before.

A doctor told him it was a “traumatic tattoo,” which can be caused by gunpowder becoming embedded in the skin.

Earlier Wednesday, New Light congregation member Carol Black recounted her own harrowing experience inside the synagogue that day.

She had begun regularly attending services there 11 years earlier with her brother, Richard Gottfried, a long-time member.

They always sat together on the left side of the New Light sanctuary. Together, they served as gabbais — holding the Torah as it was read to the congregants.

That morning, Black entered the synagogue building just after the 9:45 a.m. start of Shabbat services for her congregation. She saw her brother go in a few minutes earlier as she sat in her car finishing a phone call.

It was the last time she saw him alive.

Black, 71, testified that as she entered the building, she headed to New Light’s sanctuary downstairs. She heard her brother in the kitchen, discussing preparations for a breakfast with Stein, another member of the congregation.

As she removed her yarmulke and prayer shawl from her bag, Black heard what sounded like a metal table crashing to the ground. The sound repeated, and she wondered out loud, “What are they doing up there?”

Below are images of storage room Carol Black & Barry Weber hid in while shooter stalked outside. Melvin Wax was also in room, but was shot & killed after he peered out the door briefly. Shooter walked in room, but never saw Black or Weber. Full story here: https://t.co/sFWYhq7cRe pic.twitter.com/OnxXdVKsL9

— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) June 1, 2023

Then, Barry Werber, another member of the congregation, came into the room and said someone was lying on the steps.

Black said she couldn’t understand why. It took her a while to realize she’d heard gunfire.

“It was perplexing,” she said. “You just don’t go to a synagogue and expect to hear gunfire.”

Black said Rabbi Jonathan Perlman then told the three members who were in the sanctuary they needed to leave.

Perlman motioned Black, Werber and Melvin Wax to a set of doors, through a hallway into a pitch-black storage area to hide.

“I continued to hear the gunfire,” she said. “And then it got louder.”

Then, Black said, it became silent.

“I think Mel perceived that it was over,” she continued.

Wax moved to the front of the closet and peeked through the door.

“Apparently, the shooter was in the sanctuary and saw the door move a little,” Black said. “He shot Mel.”

Black remained still behind the propped-open metal door. She saw a shadow of the shooter through the crack in the opening.

“I just remained calm,” she said. “It just occurred to me … if I remained calm, I would not give my position away.”

Related:

• Rabbi, dispatcher recount horrors of Pittsburgh synagogue attack • Opening statements begin in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial

Eventually, she heard voices and the sounds of police radio transmissions.

“I thought to myself, ‘OK, they’re coming to save us,’” Black said.

Two Pittsburgh SWAT officers positioned themselves around Black and Werber and ushered them out of the building.

“I had to step over Mel to get out of the space,” she said. “I just quietly to myself said goodbye to him.”

As she left with the officers, Black told them, “‘My brother’s in there. You’ve got to go get my brother.’”

Minutes later, as Black sat in a Pittsburgh police patrol car, she said she heard another radio transmission.

“I heard them saying, ‘Eight confirmed dead,’” and that others had been taken to the hospital, Black said. “My prayer was that my brother was one of the people being taken to the hospital.”

He wasn’t. Authorities pronounced him dead at the synagogue.

The last witness called Wednesday was August Siriano, the long-time custodian at the Tree of Life building.

Siriano, who was close with the Simons and Rosenthals, said some of the things he liked most about working there were the people, the handshakes and the kisses on the cheek.

Cecil and David Rosenthal always arrived at the synagogue early on Saturday mornings, Siriano said. That day, he sat with them in the lobby and had tea and bagels. Then he helped them prepare for services.

“I tied their shoes, and I fixed their ties,” Siriano said. “They were cool. They were like friends. They were like brothers.”

Siriano said he was in the bathroom when the shooting started. He heard shots and smelled gunpowder. He ran toward the Pervin Chapel, where the Tree of Life congregation worshipped. On the floor outside, he saw a magazine for a gun.

And then he saw Cecil’s body lying on the floor.

Siriano ran from the building and called 911.

Earlier Wednesday, the director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership, a mental health group that formed in response to the synagogue shooting, said the group has seen an increase in people using their services since the trial began Tuesday.

“There has been a lot of really heavy and intense testimony,” Director Maggie Feinstein said outside the courthouse. “People are definitely feeling the impacts of this.”

Feinstein said it is normal for people to experience trauma while they are following a trial, and she encourages community members to seek out support through the Healing Partnership and other avenues such as family and friends.

For a list of resources, visit this website.

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