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Student helps raise $540K for synagogue shooting victims

PITTSBURGH, PA - OCTOBER 28: Flowers and cards sit at a makeshift memorial down the street from the site of the mass shooting that killed 11 people and wounded 6 at the Tree Of Life Synagogue on October 28, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Suspected gunman Richard Bowers, 46, has been charged with 29 federal counts in the mass shooting that police say was fueled by antisemitism. Suspected gunman Richard Bowers, 46, has been charged with 29 federal counts in the mass shooting that police say was fueled by antisemitism. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) - A graduate student in the nation's capital set out to raise $500 for the victims of a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Now he's increased the goal to $1 million.

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Shay Khatiri's fundraiser had raised nearly $545,000 as of Monday morning. The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies student says the funds will go directly to the Tree of Life congregation, where a gunman killed 11 people on Saturday.

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WJLA-TV reports that the 29-year-old Khatiri isn't Jewish, but says he's a political refugee from Iran who has received generosity from the Jewish community. He says the fundraiser took "only two minutes of my life," so the credit for the act should go to those who have donated.

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