Survivors, first responders speak about Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in new documentary

PITTSBURGH — Monday marks seven years since the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

It remains the deadliest anti-semitic attack on U.S. soil.

First responders ran toward the terror, helping victims like Dan Leger.

Body camera video shows them carrying Leger to safety.

In a new documentary, we are hearing from some of the survivors and SWAT officers about the day their lives changed forever.

“My initial response was, ‘This can’t be gunfire. The furnace must be blowing up. It’s a chilly day, end of the season. This is an old funky building,’” Leger said.

In a new documentary, called “The Debrief - Confronting Hate, Tree of Life,” Leger recalls the moments he heard the first round of gunshots at the synagogue and when a man came in firing as people worshipped.

“I think your mind works in a way that tries to tell you that when bad things are happening, they’re not really happening,” Leger said.

That day, 11 people were killed, and several others were injured, including three officers and Leger.

He lay in the stairwell, unsure if he was going to survive.

“All of a sudden, I see a pant leg and a boot on the stairway between my face and the wall. I said to myself, ‘In a split second, this is either the shooter, and if he sees I’m alive, he could finish me off…or it’s a helper.’ I reached up and tried to touch the pant leg and he screamed out, ‘This one’s alive.’”

Two SWAT officers carried Leger out of the synagogue, and he was rushed to the hospital, where he spent a month.

Down the hall from him, SWAT officer Tim Matson was also recovering after he was shot several times.

“She said his goal in PT was to make it to my room ... so one day I was in my room and I heard a walker clicking, and coming around the bend was this frail old man ... and he walks in my room,” Matson said.

In that hospital room, over the course of the next month, the two men became close friends and bonded over what’s likely the most terrifying day of their lives.

“This was a man who really literally put his life on the line for me. I love him. I love him like a son. Like a brother,” Leger said.

If you’d like to watch the entire documentary, click here.

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