'Bro, I can't move,' critically wounded officer told medics after being shot in Pittsburgh synagogue

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Critically wounded Pittsburgh SWAT Officer Timothy Matson had just been carried down the stairs by two of his colleagues when SWAT Medic Justin Sypolt began to evaluate him.

They put the largest member of the SWAT team — previously described as 6-foot-5, 315 pounds — in the Tree of Life synagogue's library, which had been turned into the unit's casualty collection point.

Matson had been shot in the leg and head after being ambushed by an active shooter inside the Squirrel Hill synagogue that morning.

Sypolt, who spoke in federal court on Monday, kept asking Matson where he was injured and worked to try to separate Matson's hands, which he was holding together.

"Bro, I can't move," Matson told him.

Sypolt responded, "It's cool, man. We got you."

He reassured his colleague, who they knew was on blood thinners, that they’d take care of him. But Sypolt said he was worried because Matson's head injuries included a skin flap and avulsion.

"We need to get him out of here right now," Sypolt told another colleague.

Matson was placed on a stretcher and carried by seven people down the steps to safety.

As Sypolt concluded his testimony Monday afternoon, Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo Song asked him what would have happened to Matson if they hadn't gotten him immediate medical care.

He would have died.

Sypolt testified on the fifth day of trial for Robert Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, who is accused of killing 11 people and wounding several others in a mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill on Oct. 27, 2018.

Bowers, who has been in custody since the day of the attack, is charged with 63 federal counts, including 11 counts each of obstructing the free exercise of religion resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death.

He could face the death penalty if convicted in the federal case.

Sypolt, who spent 45 minutes on the stand, said he was at home the morning of the attack preparing for his annual Halloween party. He was working on a Jell-O mold of an alien baby when he got a text from a colleague about a shooting in Squirrel Hill.

Armed with his personal 9 mm handgun, Sypolt headed to the scene and teamed up with SWAT medic Eric Barazotto to enter the building. Although Barazotto had his protective gear, his gun was kept on a SWAT truck that had not yet arrived.

That didn't stop him.

"I was going into an active shooter situation, I would’ve preferred to have protection," Barazotto testified. "I’m to run in and see if I can help."

As they entered the building, he and Sypolt immediately spotted worshippers with gunshot wounds they knew were fatal.

As he approached a man lying on a set of descending stairs with a gunshot wound to the abdomen, Sypolt said he suspected the man's injuries to be fatal.

"I fully expected him to be deceased, but when I moved him, he kind of looked up at me and reached out to me," Sypolt said. "I was very surprised."

A bodycam video played for the jury showed him carrying that man, Dan Leger, to an ambulance. Sypolt said he also helped a wounded woman, Andrea Wedner, who had an arm injury.

As they continued to make their way through the complex layout of the synagogue, Sypolt said, they heard the rhythmic, repeating sounds of a gun battle upstairs.

"Time kind of slows down for you, mentally, as that happens," Sypolt said.

He described running toward the sound, seeing the dust in the air and hearing officers yell that one of their own had been hit.

That's when he saw Matson.

A short time after they had gotten Matson to safety, Sypolt said they heard another gunfight upstairs and then SWAT Officer Anthony Burke, who had been shot in the right arm, came down.

His right arm had been tied off with a tourniquet to control the bleeding while Burke held his handgun in his left hand.

" ‘Go get that (expletive) guy,’ " Burke told his colleagues, Sypolt recounted.

"He wanted to get back into the gunfight," Barazotto said.

Earlier Monday, Pittsburgh SWAT Officer Michael Saldutte described seeing Matson get shot.

The two men had entered the upstairs classroom together, looking for the suspect. As Matson turned left, Saldutte said he saw him crumple to the floor in front of him and watched as bullets entered Matson's body.

"I dove in front of him," Saldutte testified.

Saldutte said he pressed his right shoulder to the floor and lay in front of Matson to protect his fallen colleague.

"Our job is to put body armor, ourselves, in front of him," Saldutte said.

It wasn't until Saldutte hit the floor that the 10-year SWAT officer said he actually heard the gunfire.

Saldutte fired toward it, tracking the shooter's movements through the muzzle flashes in the dark room.

But then, he ran out of ammunition.

"It is probably the worst feeling I’ve ever had in my life," he testified.

Saldutte's testimony of Bowers’ surrender mirrored that of other officers who spoke from the witness stand last week. He said Bowers requested help after being injured in the gunfight and, on the command of police, crawled out of the room from which he had been shooting.

"(Bowers) specifically said, I’ll never forget this, he said, ‘The Jews are killing our women and children. I had to do this,’ " Saldutte testified.

Bowers then expressed his anger at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a Jewish refugee resettlement group, Saldutte said. During her opening statement, defense attorney Judy Clarke said the defense would try to prove that Bowers’ motivation that day was related to that anger and not to prevent the Jewish congregations from worshipping.

Those killed included members of the Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light congregations.

They were Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86; brothers David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59; Dan Stein, 71; Irving Younger, 69; Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Joyce Fienberg, 75; Melvin Wax, 87; Richard Gottfried, 65; and Rose Mallinger, 97.

The defense did not cross-examine any of Monday's three witnesses.

After the scene was cleared, Saldutte, who was not injured, said he went to UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland to check on Matson. While there, he found a piece of shrapnel in the long-sleeved shirt he wore during the shooting.

"Our job as law enforcement is to put ourselves in harm's way to stop innocent people from getting hurt or killed," he said.

Although the trial has been filled with emotional testimony and audio from harrowing 911 calls and police radio traffic through its first week, Monday marked the first time that jurors were shown graphic images of the victims inside.

Before the start of testimony Monday, defense attorney Ashwin Cattamanchi renewed a motion to limit or exclude graphic images of the victims from being displayed to the jury, saying they provide no evidentiary value.

"The only purpose is an improper appeal to the jury's emotion, passion and prejudice," he said.

Cattamanchi argued that many of the pictures show the same things from different angles. He noted that 14 images the government anticipated using were of just four victims.

Song, the prosecutor, responded by noting that the judge already had denied an earlier defense motion on the same issue.

"The defense has had these images for years and these exhibits for months," she said.

She called the defense argument "specious," and said the images are necessary and corroborate earlier witness testimony.

"Part of the reason why there are so many images is because the defendant killed 11 victims," she said.

U.S. District Judge Robert Colville said he believed the photographs help to illustrate the layout of the synagogue as well as the positions where the victims were found.

"The background of different shots, whether the victims appear or not, is helpful to me," he said.

He overruled the defense motion.

As the mid-morning break in testimony was to end, Colville was approached by his clerk who had gone back to retrieve the jury. They spoke briefly, and the judge then called the parties to sidebar.

After that, and without explanation, Colville called for an early and extended lunch recess.

When court resumed, there were only 17 jurors in the box. One of them, a white woman, was no longer present. The panel now consists of 12 jurors and five alternates.

The judge did not explain what had happened.

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