Anita “Nicki” Gordon was a 63-year-old female of Caucasian ethnicity, residing in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she worked as an interior designer and was deeply involved in her religious community—she helped decorate parts of the Beth El Congregation synagogue and was cherished for her warmth and kindness by friends and family. Her close connections extended into her family as well; she was the wife of Dr. Sanford A.
Gordon, and the mother of three daughters: Annette, Linda, and Nancy. She was also the sister of Seima Horvitz.
On April 28, 2000, at approximately 1:30 p.m. EDT, the 63-year-old female neighbor Anita “Nicki” Gordon was lethally shot by Richard S. Baumhammers, a 35-year-old white male and former immigration attorney. After fatally shooting the 63-year-old female, he set her house on fire. Immediately thereafter, he drove away in his Jeep Cherokee and continued a racially motivated attack.
In subsequent stops, the suspect targeted places of worship and individuals of minority backgrounds. At Beth El Congregation, where the 63-year-old female had been a member, Baumhammers fired into the synagogue's windows, then exited the vehicle and spray-painted two red swastikas and the word “Jew” on the building—a clear act of anti-Semitic vandalism. He moved on to shoot and kill Anil Thakur, a 31-year-old male of Indian descent, at a grocery store; then paralyzed Sandip Patel, a 25-year-old male co-owner of the store. He also attacked an Ahavath Achim synagogue, firing shots through glass windows. Further, at a Chinese restaurant in Robinson Township, he shot and killed Ji-Ye “Jerry” Sun, a 34-year-old male of Chinese ethnicity, and Thao “Tony” Pham, a 27-year-old Vietnamese-American male. Finally, at a karate school in Beaver County, he shot and killed Garry Lee, a 22-year-old Black male martial-arts student.
Law enforcement intercepted the suspect approximately 3 to 3:15 p.m. on the same day and arrested him in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, after a two-hour, multi-site, racially motivated shooting spree across several suburbs of Pittsburgh.
Subsequent legal proceedings revealed that Richard S. Baumhammers was the arrested suspect and was charged with multiple counts including first-degree murder, arson, ethnic intimidation, criminal mischief, aggravated assault, and firearms offenses. The 35-year-old former attorney faced a trial in which the jury rejected an insanity defense and found him guilty on all nineteen charges. He was subsequently sentenced to death by lethal injection and remains incarcerated on death row, pending appeal.
In summary, the 63-year-old female victim Anita “Nicki” Gordon was killed in a deliberate, racially and religiously motivated attack by a single suspect—Richard S. Baumhammers—who was arrested the same day and later convicted for her murder along with the slayings of four other individuals of diverse minority backgrounds and the serious injury of another.
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