At 9:54 AM EDT on Saturday, October 27, 2018, Allegheny County 911 received the first call about an active shooter at the Tree of Life - Or L'Simcha Congregation synagogue on Wilkins Avenue in Squirrel Hill, less than two miles southeast of the University of Pittsburgh's Oakland campus. The University of Pittsburgh Police pushed a Pitt ENS alert to students and faculty ordering them to avoid the Squirrel Hill/Shadyside corridor, many Pitt students lived in or walked through Squirrel Hill on weekends. The Tree of Life shooter, Robert Gregory Bowers, killed 11 worshippers in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. Pitt issued no campus lockdown (the synagogue was outside the immediate campus perimeter); the ENS bulletin instead directed the campus community to avoid the Squirrel Hill/Shadyside corridor.
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Campus Alert Archive. "University of Pittsburgh: Synagogue mass shooting under two miles from campus prompts neighborhood alert; 11 killed." Incident of October 27, 2018. Added May 2026; last updated August 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/university-of-pittsburgh-tree-of-life-ens-2018-10-27/
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