for the first time, suspected synagogue shooter robert bowers faced the judge along with 29 counts that could lead to the death penalty. >> rest assure wed have a team of prosecutors working hard to ensure that justice is done. and today as the president prepares to visit pittsburgh, the first of 11 funerals will be held for the victims of saturday's massacre. >> officials are scrambling to warn dozens of people in the accused serial killer's list of potential targets while cesar sayoc faced the judge along with five federal charges. america's southern border, already fortified with thousands of national guard and border police is about to get a whole

lot more crowded with over 5,000 active duty military set to arrive. the red sox's triumphant return to boston complete with a world series trophy. and on this halloween eve, thousands of jack-o'-lanterns light the way as we head into a busy tuesday. "early today" starts right now. good morning. i'm marlie hall. >> and i'm milissa rehberger. funerals begin today for the victims of a shooting at a synagogue. the first to be bury ready two brothers, david and cecil rosenthal who attended the tree of life synagogue since they were boys. religious groups across the country are showing their solidarity with pittsburgh. a group of muslim americans organized a crowd funding campaign that has now raised more than $178,000 in just two days. the funds will help families with medical bills and funeral costs. >> later today president trump is expected to visit steel city in the wake of the tragedy, to some mixed reactions. some residents saying he is not welcome until he has fully denounced white nationalism.

the tree of life rabbi, however, saying it would be an honor to meet any president. this as the suspect in the shooting, robert bowers, appears in court for the first time. here is nbc's pete williams. >> shots fired, shots fired! >> reporter: two days after the shooting rampage it was the first court appearance of bowers, just out of the hospital treated for wounds he received during a gun battle with police that left four officers injured. wheeled into court, he said he understood the charges and was ordered held without bail. bowers faces 29 counts, the most serious, killing people engaged in federally protected worship that carries a maximum penalty of death upon conviction, and the u.s. attorney says he will recommend seeking it. >> rest assured, we have a team of prosecutors working hard to ensure that justice is done. >> reporter: according to investigators, while bowers was firing inside the tree of life synagogue, and again after he was arrested, he said he wanted to kill jews. the fbi says he was armed with

an ar-15 assault style rifle and three handguns like these, and used them all during the rampage. his social media posts seethed with anti-semitic hatred, including for hias, a jewish refugee organization that helps refugees, which bowers called hostile invaders. a site where he posted, gab said it's been cooperating with the fbi. his posts suggest that he knew a congregation meeting at the pittsburgh synagogue saturday was helping in that refugee effort. he said he did not support or vote for donald trump. unlike package bob defendant cesar sayoc who plastered political views on his van, neighbors say bowers did not spout hate to them. >> nothing that would stand out. the most terrifying thing is how normal he seemed. >> reporter: a loner who the fbi says was unknown to law enforcement before saturday. pete williams, nbc news, washington. the synagogue massacre is part of a disturbing rise in anti-semitic incidents across the country.

recently, according to the anti-defamation league, now many other synagogues are taking extra precautions. for more on that, let's go to nbc's stephanie gosk. good morning. >> reporter: milissa, security is beefed up at this synagogue in new york city, but the reality is for american jews, even before this shooting in pittsburgh, anti-semitism is on the rise with dramatic increases in just the last couple of years. robert bowers' anti-semitic rants as he gunned down the faithful in pittsburgh were fueled online, in chat rooms and on social media where hate lives through. the holocaust references and the celebration of genocide found on the internet are not just aberrations, but a fact of everyday life. >> the problem that we have today is not that anti-it isemi is here, it has always existed.

>> reporter: the anti-defamation reports that after years of steady decreases, there has been a dramatic spike in anti-semitic incident, up nearly 20% between 2016 and 2017, including assault, harassment, and vandalism. jewish community centers faced a nationwide string of bomb threats. jewish cemeteries were desecrated. perhaps the most dramatic example before this weekend was the rally of white supremacists in charlottesville. >> you will not replace us. >> reporter: chants of "jews will not replace us" amid torches. >> i think what we need are people in positions of authority to speak out quickly, firmly and forcefully when anti-settlementism and any other form of racism eemergency. >> reporter: now is the wake-up call the country needs. synagogues in new york city are actually used to increases in security, especially after attacks on the city.

the question will be now whether after the shooting in pittsburgh, the increases in security stay. milissa? >> stephanie, thank you. the pittsburgh mass shooting is also re-igniting the gun debate. president trump saying shortly after that guns had little to do with the massacre, and perhaps armed guards could have helped. but dramatic lead. >> including pittsburgh's mayor are again saying that more guns are not the answer, all with just a week to go before election day. >> reporter: to prevent another pittsburgh, president trump's floating an idea he has brought up before, more guns in the hands of good guys to stop a bad guy. >> if there was an armed guard inside the temple, they would have been able to stop him. maybe there would have been nobody killed except for him, frankly. >> reporter: still, the president says he hates to think of filling places of worship with armed guards. on that he finds common ground with local faith leaders. >> if we were to simply armor of us, if that would be the solution, simply misunderstands

the responsibility each of us has, and the president in particular, to lead news the direction of peaceful co-existen co-existence. >> reporter: while the national conversation centers more around toxic political rhetoric than guns, gun control has become an animating issue in some midterm races like in georgia. democratic candidate lucy mcbath talks openly about the death of her son, killed by a man complaining about loud rap music in his car. >> when my son was murdered, i vowed to make a difference. >> reporter: now her grief fuel herself candidacy. she and others like democrat krissy hoolihan running for congress outside philadelphia are making gun control a central part of their campaigns, but so are many republicans, fighting against it. >> i own guns that no one's taking away. >> reporter: a familiar message, and they believe a winning one. still, recent polling shows the issue of guns is not one of the top motivating factors for most voters ahead of the midterms. marlie, back to you. >> hallie, thank you. as thousands of migrants

continue their journey to the u.s., the pentagon announced a deployment of 5,200 troops to the southwest border. with about 2,000 national guard troops already there, this puts roughly the same number of troops serving at the border as in syria and iraq combined. let's bring in nbc news's susan michael cohen maginnis in washington, d.c. with. what does this announcement mean for those seeking asylum here? >> hi, good morning, millissmil. 5200 more troops being sent to the border by the end of the week, as you said, joining 2,000 troops already there. president trump has tweeted that these migrants, these refugees now traveling on foot through mexico amounts to an invasion, he says. he says it includes gang members and some very bad people. he did say that there are terrorists among them, but later said he had no proof of that. here's what president trump said when he was asked on fox what happens to asylum seekers. >> what happens is they would catch and release.

we're catching. we're not releasing. so if they want to come over, but we're not even doing that. we're not letting them into this country. we're not going to let gang members. >> but what if they're applying for asylum? isn't the law? >> if they apply for asylum, we're going to hold them until such time as their trial puts up. >> where? >> we're going to put tents up all over the place. we're not going to build structures and spend all of this hundreds of millions of dollars. >> reporter: and the president has made immigration and border security a major campaign issue. this move to increase military at the border comes one week before the midterm elections. milissa? >> susan, thank you. >> and president trump addressed some of that criticism in a wide ranging interview with fox news. he tells laura ingraham he plans to pay his respects in pittsburgh today. he also defended not cancelling a planned rally and his tone in the wake of the tragedy, suggesting doing so would make the suspect too important. >> rallies are meant to be fun.

rallies are meant to be everything. and i said tone it down. and then you saw the group saying no, don't tone it down, don't tone it down. you should go about your life. you can't let these people disrupt anymore than they already have. which is disgraceful. what he did is disgraceful. >> ingraham also asked president trump about his recent embrace of the term nationalist, which has been linked to far right politics and even white supremacy. >> do you want to further clarify what nationalism means to you? >> no. to me i don't have to clarify. it means i love the country. i'm fighting for country. i look at two things, globalists and nationalists. i'm someone who wants to take care of our country, because for many, many years, you know this better than anybody, our leaders have been more worried about the world than the united states, and they leave us in a mess. >> the president also looked ahead to 2020, saying there isn't a candidate he wouldn't enjoy run against, and he insisted there is no collusion with russia in 2016. on the heels of their big win on sunday night, the 2018 world series champion boston red

sox are returning home with their trophy. the team beat the l.a. dodgers 5-1 in game 5. you can see them leaving their flight to board charter buses. police escorted the proud boys of summer from their cross-country flight. as they get closer to home, after an 80-year dry spell, the win marks the fourth title in 15 years. >> sox fans want to know. what's the forecast for the parade? >> it looks great on the east coast for the next two days. very nice there. all the problems are in the middle of the country. this cold front is coming through. it's going to start sucking up that moisture in the gulf, and rain will break out later today. it's light rain. not a huge ordeal. no severe weather. just a chance of some storms, chicago through kansas city, columbia towards st. louis. it's tomorrow we start to see the problems. a lot of moisture surges up from the south. the areas of yellow and red, that's prime trick-or-treatering time at 8:00 p.m., and that's a pouring rain from shreveport to little rock to memphis, lexington, louisville, cincinnati, columbus, and maybe

into pittsburgh too. some areas could get as much as 2 to 4 inches rain over the next couple of days. again, the areases we're highlighave a threat of severe weather. not today in south texas, but watch out on halloween afternoon and evening. chances of wind damage and even tornadoes. well, let's go to nfl network, orchard park and monday night football. tom brady failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time this year. but new england had little trouble with buffalo as they cruised to their fifth straight win, and calling the bills offense anemic is an understatement. devon mccarty sealed the deal to lead the pats to an afc-leading 6-2 record. the final score a snoozer, 25-6. a lot of field goals in that

game. not the best monday night game. >> thanks, bill. well, still to come, new details on the mysterious crash of an indonesian airliner, and then the suspected serial bomber faces a judge. happy anniversary dinner, darlin'. can this much love be cleaned by a little bit of dawn ultra? oh yeah one bottle has the grease cleaning power of three bottles of this other liquid. a drop of dawn and grease is gone. americans have made air wick number one for its scented oil warmer.

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>> nothing else in that complaint ties mr. sayoc to anything else in these allegations. >> reporter: federal sources say they uncovered a list of more than 100 people researched by sayoc, each person on that list now being contacted by the fbi. >> thank you so much, kerry sanders. now to a disaster in the sky. hope is fading in the search for the "survivor" of the lionair flight that crashed off the coast of indonesia early on monday. after an excruciating 24 hours, search and rescue officials announced they fear there will be no survivors. the lionair passenger aircraft was carrying 189 people, 3 of them children when it lost contact with air traffic controllers just 13 minutes after takeoff from jakarta. the plane, which was a brand-new boeing 737 max 8 was bound for a nearby island off sumatra. now to another deadly burst of gunfire in an american school, this time a high school in matthews, north carolina near

charlotte, where police say one 16-year-old student was fatally shot another. the confrontation was caught on camera. it was a fight in the hallway just before the gunfire. just ahead, pharrell williams isn't happy with president trump. we'll tell you why. and is the city of venice one step closer to becoming more like atlantis? you're watching "early today." introducing the all-new corolla hatchback. toyota. let's go places. ayep, and my teeth are yellow.? time for whitestrips. crest glamorous white whitestrips are the only ada-accepted whitening strips proven to be safe and effective. and they whiten 25x better than a leading whitening toothpaste.

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14 threes in a game! it's never been done. >> klay thompson broke teammate steph curry's nba single game three-point record. thompson nailed 14 three-pointers and finished with a whopping 52 points. the warriors as a team had 17 three-pointers in the first half. another record to build a 92-50 lead at intermission. final score 149-124. if you've tuned in to any trump rallies this year, you've probably heard a few of the president's sound tracks. but it's increasingly clear that all that background music is fair game. ♪ on monday, attorneys representing recording artist pharrell williams sent a cease and desist letter to president donald trump for playing his hit song "happy" at premidterm rallies. now that pharrell has put his foot down on the issue, it looks

like the president will have to find new music to play. the insta queen selena gomez has been dethroned. cristiano ronaldo is the most followed person on instagram, amassing more than 144 million followers. the 34-year-old soccer star has a slight lead by 18,000. the singer might not mind, though. the singer told her fans she is taking a break from social media. >> wow. i need some more followers. i feel kind of inadequate. coming up, a sure sign that the holidays are coming here at rockefeller center, but not before thousands of jack-o'-lanterns spook visitors at the minnesota zoo. much more ahead. stay with us. watch me. ( ♪ ) mike: i've tried lots of things for my joint pain. now? watch me. ( ♪ ) joni: think i'd give up showing these guys how it's done? please.

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welcome back. a city known for its canals is facing the worst flooding in a decade. roughly 75% of italy's venice is under water. venice frequently floods when high winds push water in from the lagoon, but monday's floods exceptional, rising more than five feet before receding. it's crazy to look at. let's get in the trick-or-treat forecast. once again, the area of greatest concern is going to be southeast texas. that's where we're going to deal with the thunderstorms, also to nashville, memphis, maybe cleveland rain. there is going to be treats. everyone on the east coast is mild and dry. >> all right, bill, thank you. when we return, mr. roger's real leitch neighborhood. his message to the lincoln community touched by tragedy.

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many were horrified to learn the pittsburgh community where saturday's deadly synagogue shooting rampage unfolded is literally mr. roger's neighborhood, where fred rogers really lived. now many are finding comfort in his words of kindness. here is nbc's harry smith. >> reporter: there was a two-hour wait to give blood in pittsburgh. it's what neighbors do. we couldn't help but notice fred rogers, mr. rogers had lived just blocks from the synagogue. he had a message about tragedy for the children who watched his show. >> my mother would try to find out who was helping the person who got hurt. always look for the people who are helping, she'd tell us. you'll always find somebody

whose trying to help. >> reporter: the helpers didn't hesitate saturday. scores of first responders rushed to the emergency, selflessly facing danger head-on. already inside was dr. jerry rabinowitz, who is believed to have been gunned down as he helped those who were wounded. even more help came from the islamic center of pittsburgh, calling their jewish neighbors family, brothers and sisters. they've already raised a significant amount of money for the victims, but want to do more. >> we just want to know what you need. you know, if it's more money, let us know. if it's people outside your next service protecting you, let us know. we'll be there. [ applause ] >> reporter: the people of pittsburgh are making it clear that hate won't win, not here, not in their neighborhood. harry smith, nbc news. >> a crowd funding campaign by two muslim american groups has raised more than $175,000 so far

for families affected by the shooting. well, it is finally here, and this is our first look at this year's rockefeller center christmas tree. this 72-foot-tall norway spruce from just south of the catskill mountains will be seen and admired by millions. it arrives in new york city in less than two weeks. >> that's how you know the holiday season is here. in honor of halloween, many people visiting a midwest zoo won't be going there to see the animals. that's because jack-o'-lanterns are taking over the minnesota zoo this month. this strolling exhibit features more than 5,000 pumpkins from several states creatively carved to illuminate the trails. the jack-o'-lantern spectacular is in its tenth year. >> it looks kind of creepy, but oddly cool, though. >> yeah. and they're very intricately carved. >> i love halloween and i love when people go all out on it. it's just the best. >> but you won't see any animals there. >> they'd be too scared anyway. >> well, thanks for watching "early today." i'm marlie hall. >> and i'm milissa rehberger. be sure to follow us on

facebook, twitter and instagram @nbc early today. the news continues right here on nbc and our nbc station. >> have a great tuesday. --

firefighters need to rescue a family on the peninsula when their house goes up in flames. a live report from south san francisco as crews watch for several breaking news stories. a house goes up in flames. a live report from south san francisco as crews are watching for hot spots. traffic nightmare also this morning. a lot underway. thank you for joining us. >> we'll get to that breaking news in a second. first, we're following another breaking story. lanes are closed. >> we're getting more details because this originally started as a pursuit. lths take you out to a live look at our camera. we're facing the dublin bridge