Empire State Building goes dark in honor of Pittsburgh synagogue victims

The Empire State Building in New York City went dark on Sunday night to honor the 11 victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting over the weekend. 

One day after the congregants were killed in an anti-Semitic hate crime, the Empire State Building went dark with an orange mast, “shining a light on gun violence awareness,” the building’s Twitter account posted.

In sympathy for the victims of the attack in Pittsburgh, our tower lights will go dark tonight. Our mast will display an orange halo shining a light on gun violence awareness.

: @isardasorensen pic.twitter.com/ulKFNUTl60

— Empire State Bldg (@EmpireStateBldg) October 28, 2018

The color orange is used by many gun violence prevention advocates to symbolize the issue.{mosads} 

The suspected shooter, Robert Bowers, opened fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood on Saturday morning, police said. The gunman killed at least 11 congregants and wounded four police officers, as well as two others. 

The shooting is the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Bowers had posted on his Gab page that “jews are the children of satan” and reportedly shouted “all Jews must die” before launching the attack.

Thousands gathered for a vigil to honor the victims in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

The New York Police Department said Saturday that it would deploy officers to places of worship in the city as a precaution after the Pittsburgh shooting.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said in a statement that “initial reports suggest that this senseless act of gun violence was an anti-Semitic attack and we stand together with the Jewish community in this difficult time as we always have before.”

The Empire State Building has gone dark to commemorate the victims of multiple mass shootings in recent years, including the 58 people killed in Las Vegas last year and the 17 people killed in Florida last February. It has also gone orange in solidarity with thousands of protesters across the country calling for an end to gun violence.