Witness testifies that Pittsburgh synagogue shooter saved his life as a teen

When Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers was a teenager, he saved a friend who was struggling to stay afloat in the Monongahela River.

Frank Ray testified Tuesday in federal court that he and other boys went to find a rope swing hanging underneath the Glenwood Bridge and go swimming in the Mon one afternoon in the late 1980s.

At one point as the group was swimming back to shore, Ray told the jury that he started to have trouble and thought he wouldn’t make it.

While one friend told Ray to swim harder, Bowers returned to Ray. Bowers put his arm under Ray’s shoulder like a lifeguard, told him to relax and then helped him back to shore.

“I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have made it to shore if he wasn’t there,” Ray said. “He probably saved my life that day.”

Ray, who said he was friends with Bowers for a few years when they lived in the same Pleasant Hills apartment complex as teens, testified for about 30 minutes on Tuesday as the defense continued to present evidence that it hopes will keep Bowers from being sentenced to the death penalty.

Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, was found guilty of 63 counts against him for killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill on Oct. 27, 2018. The jury found him eligible for the death penalty and is now listening to evidence in the final, sentence-selection phase of trial.

The victims included Rose Mallinger, 97; Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 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 Richard Gottfried, 65. They were members of the Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light congregations.

Ray recounts a story of when he and Bowers were 16 and they went swimming in the river off a rope swing. Ray said he was a bad swimmer and when swimming back he didn't think he would make it, but Bowers dragged him back like a lifeguard. "He probably saved my life," said Ray.

— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) July 25, 2023

Witnesses called to testify Tuesday included social workers, therapists and educators who worked with Bowers when he was hospitalized as a teen for depression, as well as some of Bowers’ employers in his adult life.

Ray told the jury about his relationship with Bowers, who was a couple years older than him. He described the defendant as very intelligent — especially in math and science — with mechanical aptitude.

Although he was part of a group of friends, Ray said that outside of that, Bowers could be awkward.

One of the things that made the defendant stand out back then, Ray continued, was his ability to make explosives.

“It was kind of his thing,” Ray said. “He gained popularity by blowing things up.”

Bowers never tried to hurt anyone with the hand-made explosives, and instead the friends would gather and watch him detonate pipe bombs, Ray said.

“We all enjoyed it,” the witness said. “When you’re 13, it’s quite entertaining.”

The defendant once blew up a fire extinguisher and set a bomb off in a frozen pond in a field behind their apartment complex.

“It was more for the show of it than the destruction it would cause,” Ray said.

The witness told the jury that he didn’t often hang out at Bowers’ apartment, but when he did, Bowers’ mother was showering — for hours — with the bathroom door open and a television blaring on a cart in the doorway.

“I could feel his embarrassment,” Ray said.

There were bags of Oreos all over the apartment, he remembered, but no one was allowed to touch them.

Ray described Bowers’ mother as moving very slowly and having labored breathing.

“Kind of like a woe-is-me attitude all the time,” he said, mentioning it was difficult to be around her.

Ray also told the jury that they used to ride their friend’s motorcycle in a field. Bowers really liked it and made a deal with his mother that she’d get him a dirt bike, though Ray couldn’t remember if it would be in exchange for good grades or good behavior.

“I remember him meeting the criteria for this. He was so excited he was finally getting a dirt bike,” Ray said. “She reneged on the deal.”

Bowers was crestfallen.

“It sucked for him.”

Also testifying Tuesday was a woman who befriended Bowers after an incident in high school where he was drinking grain alcohol and — either accidentally or as a suicide attempt — set himself on fire.

Kelly McKinley said she was two years younger than Bowers when he was injured as a teen. She went to visit him at Mercy Hospital after he was burned.

When she arrived, he was wrapped head to toe with gauze.

“All you could see were his eyes,” McKinley said.

Bowers was unable to talk and would write one-word comments on a white board in marker. He also wrote that he loved her.

McKinley said she thought she visited him twice there and twice more after he was moved to an in-patient psychiatric ward at the former St. Francis Hospital in Lawrenceville.

During her first visit at St. Francis, McKinley said Bowers told her of a plan to escape the hospital.

During the second visit, on Jan. 13, 1990, they carried it out. The defendant was on a home pass, and he and McKinley were in the back seat of his mother’s car while she drove. When his mother stopped at a stop sign, McKinley and Bowers opened the back doors and ran away on foot.

They ultimately were caught by the police.

McKinley said she wasn’t Bowers’ girlfriend.

After that, she told the jury he visited her once at her home, and the two sat outside smoking cigarettes as he talked about how much he disliked his mother and stepfather.

“He was very upset,” McKinley said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the defense switched gears and called two witnesses to testify about Bowers’ work history as an adult.

Jason Erb, who works for PAM Trucking, testified that Bowers worked for the company twice — from October 2008 through May 2010 and again from March 2015 to March 2016.

Erb said that Bowers did well on his written and driving exams for the company and was considered reliable. When he quit in 2015, the paperwork notes that he was eligible for rehire because he left under good circumstances.

Michael McLellan, who was Bowers’ supervisor at Community Living and Support Services, testified that Bowers worked there from September 2010 to August 2011 and provided care to residents.

Bowers was a good employee who made an extra effort to care for the residents and spend additional time with them, McLellan said.

“He seemed to try to always go above and beyond,” McLellan said. “He was one of the better staff I had.”

Even after Bowers left that job, McLellan said, he still would call to check in on two of the men he cared for.

On cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo Song, both Erb and McLellan said that the jobs Bowers worked were important and required more than a basic level of functioning.

He had to be reliable, accountable and responsible, they said.

The defense will continue its case Wednesday morning.