In the minutes after alleged shooter Robert Bowers walked into the Tree of Life synagogue and murdered 11 people, President Trump called Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto to discuss the death penalty, according to a Sunday report from The Washington Post. After briefly offering thoughts and prayers and a direct line to the White House, Peduto told the Post, Trump jumped immediately into a conversation about how stricter death-penalty legislation could prevent mass shootings like the one his city was currently experiencing. Peduto was stunned. “I’m literally standing two blocks from 11 bodies right now. Really?” Peduto reportedly responded, adding that the death penalty wouldn’t “bring them back or deter what had just happened.” “I ended the conversation pretty quickly after that,” he said. The White House did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.
