Pittsburgh, PA – Pittsburgh police are investigating after a hoax online threat was made against Tree of Life synagogue, the site of the mass shooting five years ago.
It was just before 9 a.m. Thursday that authorities learned of the claim of a threat. It quickly proved to be false, but it brought a fast police response.
“Fortunately, police were able to determine relatively quickly that this was a hoax threat. But nonetheless, there was still an increased police presence at that synagogue, as well as many of our other synagogues,” Shawn Brokos, director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.
Pittsburgh Public Safety confirmed to Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 that the threat was made in a voice-over-internet call to a 988 suicide and crisis line. It was the crisis line that notified Pittsburgh 911. Police checked not only the Tree of Life site but other Pittsburgh synagogues.
“I was able to alert all of our 60-plus organizations that we were aware of this threat, and it had been determined to be a hoax, but that you will see an increased police presence just in an abundance of caution in our Pittsburgh-based area,” Brokos said.
“This (was) a busy time. There’s commuters, but also we have our day schools in session. We have our early learning centers of our synagogues. So, word got out quickly about the increased police presence. And we were just grateful that law enforcement ascertained fairly early on that this was a hoax,” Brokos said.
A dispatcher told officers via police radio communications that a person “called the suicide line saying they’re going into a synagogue and shooting it up. They believe it’s possibly a prank. However, there was mention of an AR-15 as well.” The dispatcher said the person named the Tree of Life Synagogue.
Police radio communications indicated the initial internet tracing by authorities shows the fake threat came from out of state, not Pittsburgh.
“When it’s an online threat, the first thing that law enforcement will look at is where did this originate from? Where is the IP address? And again, that information came fairly quickly and we were able to determine that it was not, at least it was out of state. It was coming from out of state,” Brokos said.
In an abundance of caution, police checked other local synagogues and have an increased presence on watch.
Brokos acknowledged the hoax evoked strong memories of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
“The incredible police presence there in our community now, when we see and hear light and sirens and we see cars racing to one of our locations, it brings everybody back to that day. It brings back the trauma, the anxiety associated with this,” Brokos said. “The police response is being done just to keep everybody safe. But that doesn’t take away from the anxiety and the trepidation that people are feeling now more so than ever.”
Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 recently spoke with Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, about the impact of antisemitism.
“No one knows this better than the community of Pittsburgh, because we had a man radicalized in 2018 on social media and then went into the Tree of Life congregation and killed 11 people,” Greenblatt said.
