Showing posts with label Overland Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Overland Park. Show all posts

Monday, April 14, 2014

Jewish Center Shooting Suspect Linked to KKK - CBN News

CBN News

Jewish Center Shooting Suspect 

Linked to KKK


A man tied to the white supremacist movement is being accused of this weekend's deadly shootings at Jewish facilities in Kansas City, Kan. The killings took place just before the Jewish Passover holiday begins on Monday evening.

The suspect, a 73-year-old Missouri man named Frazier Glenn Miller, reportedly has a history of racist and anti-Semitic activity.

He was heard shouting "Heil Hitler" moments after being handcuffed and put in the back of the police car.

"The initial call came into our dispatch center at 1:03 p.m," Overland Park Chief of Police John Douglas said.

The chaos began Sunday afternoon in a suburb of Kansas City when Miller opened fire in the parking lot of the Jewish Community Center.

"It was really scary," recalled Jenessa Watkins, who was inside the JCC when the shootings took place. "People were calling their loved ones."

About 75 people, many of whom were youngsters, were in the community center at the time of the shooting.

The victims include Dr. William Lewis Corporon, who had accompanied his grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, 14, to a high school singing competition being held at the community center.

"Several shots were fired at that location and witnesses stated that the suspect left the location soon after," Douglas said.

The name of the third victim, a resident of Village Shalom, a nearby assisted-living center, has not been released.

"Today's' tragic shooting of three people marks a sad day in Overland Park," Mayor Carl Gerlach said.

Sunday's attack comes as anti-Semitic incidents have been on the decline in the United States, although they've been rising in other parts of the world, especially in Europe.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, said Miller is the former grand dragon of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Miller reportedly posted more than 12,000 times on the Vanguard News Network, whose slogan is "No Jews, Just Right."

Still, authorities say it is too early to say whether the shootings were hate crimes.

"Obviously two Jewish facilities, one might make that assumption, but we're going to have to know more about it before we label it," Douglas said.

President Barack Obama called Sunday's fatal shooting "heartbreaking" as prayer services were held in local churches to mourn the victims.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also extended condolences to families of victims.

"We understand that the murders were -- according to indications -- were perpetrated out of hatred of Jews," Netanyahu said. "The State of Israel is at the forefront, along with all civilized peoples who are committed to the struggle against this scourge."


Sunday, April 13, 2014

Three dead in Kansas Jewish center shootings

Breaking News - 590x148
kansas shooting
Three people were reported dead on Sunday in a possible anti-Semitic shooting attack at two buildings serving the Jewish community near Kansas City. A gunman opened fired in the parking lot of the Overland Park Jewish Community Center and the nearby Village Shalom retirement home, both in the Kansas City suburb. 
"At around 1 p.m. today, Overland Park police received multiple calls regarding a shooting on the campus of the Jewish Community Center, 5801 W. 115th Street. Additional calls were received by police of another shooting at the Village Shalom Retirement Community, 5500 W. 123rd," according to the Overland Park Police Department. "Three victims are confirmed deceased. A person of interest has been taken into custody at this time," the police spokesman said. 
CNN reported that the deceased included a teenager and an elderly woman. During the initial developing story, a spokeswoman for Overland Park Regional Medical Center said the hospital was treating a 14-year-old male who suffered a gunshot wound and who was in critical condition. The gunman fired toward a total of five people, three of whom were confirmed dead, authorities investigating the incident said at a press briefing. 
Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said it was too early to label the attacks as anything other than "vicious acts of violence." He stated that two males were killed outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas and one female at the nearby Shalom Village retirement home. He confirmed that police had a white male in his 70s in custody for questioning. He added that the man was unknown to police until today.
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City said on Facebook that no shooting had occurred inside its campus, and it had released home all the participants of its programming. Overland Park, the second biggest city in Kansas, is a short drive away from the state’s main Jewish concentration in Kansas City. 
According to Kansas's KSHB 41 Action News, police were holding one suspect in custody, who was reported as yelling "heil Hitler" as he was being detained. The entire JCC campus was locked down. One witness was quoted by KSHB 41 Action News as saying that a man, presumably the shooter, had aimed a gun at him before shooting the windows of his vehicle. US Federal Bureau of Investigation officials were helping local authorities investigate the two shootings, CNN cited FBI spokesman Joel Sealer as saying. 
The JCC of Greater Kansas City announced that it would be closed on Monday. "We will post more information following a debriefing at the Overland Park Police Command Center and a 5:00 pm press conference, which will be carried live," the JCC said on Facebook. The Jerusalem Post was unable to reach the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City for further comment. 
The shooting comes only weeks after the Anti-Defamation League released a report describing an increase in physical assaults against Jews despite an overall 19 percent decrease of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States. In its Annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents, the ADL reported that there 751 incidents in 41 states and Washington, DC — among the lowest number since 1979, when the ADL began collecting data. The number of incidents has been steadily declining for the past decade.
Source: Jerusalem Post