Kansas shootings will be pursued as hate crimes
OVERLAND PARK, KAN.— Prosecutors have enough evidence to pursue hate-crime charges in the shooting spree that killed three people at a Jewish community centre and retirement complex near Kansas City, authorities said Monday, a day after the attack.
Frazier Glenn Cross of Missouri, a known white supremacist, has not been formally charged in the slayings, but officials said more information about charges was expected Tuesday. Federal prosecutors were moving to put the case before a grand jury.
Police suspect Cross fatally shot two people Sunday afternoon in the parking lot behind the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, then drove to a retirement community, where he shot a third person.
“We have unquestionably determined through the work of law enforcement that this was a hate crime,” Overland Park police Chief John Douglass said, refusing to elaborate on the evidence.
Cross was jailed on a preliminary charge of first-degree murder.
Douglass said the suspect made several statements to police, “but it’s too early to tell you what he may or may not have said” during the attacks. He also said it was too early in the investigation to determine whether Cross had an anti-Semitic motive. The Jewish festival of Passover began Monday evening.
The victims were identified as Dr. William Lewis Corporon, 69, who died at the scene; his grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, 14, who died in hospital; and Terri LaManno, 53, who was visiting her mother.
All three were Christians.