WHEREAS, on the afternoon of October 27, 2018, a mass shooting carried out by a lone gunman occurred at the Tree of Life Synagogue (L'Symcha Congregation) during Shabbat morning services in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, leaving eleven people dead; and
WHEREAS, nine other shooting victims including four police officers, were removed to area hospitals after sustaining serious gunshot wounds; and
WHEREAS, the horrific shooting is the deadliest attack against a Jewish community in the United States; and
WHEREAS, the Chicago City Council has been informed of this tragic event by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, filled with rabid anti-Semitic hate and gross intolerance, the lone gunman entered the synagogue heavily armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and three handguns; and
WHEREAS, in the wake of this act of pure evil, two brothers and a married couple were slain; and
WHEREAS, worldwide leaders including Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Francis decried the "horrific anti-Semitic brutality" and "inhuman act of violence," joining with mourners from across the globe in their shared grief for the families of the survivors and the injured; and
WHEREAS, on October 28, 2018, the Empire State Building in New York darkened its lights in remembrance ofthe fallen now, therefore;
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and the members of the Chicago City Council, assembled this thirty-first day of October, 2018 do hereby express our prayers and profound sorrow to the families of the fallen and a hope for a swift recovery for the injured and an end to the scourge of hate crime, violence and mass murder that has plagued our Nation in recent years; and