Kansas gun suspect faces hate crime charges
Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, arrested after deaths of three people at two Jewish centres in Kansas.
The suspect in the deaths of three people at two Jewish centres in Kansas is to be charged with committing hate crimes, according to investigators.
Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, was arrested on Sunday over a shooting spree that killed a teenager and his grandfather outside a Jewish community centre in Overland Park, Kansas, and a woman visiting her mother at a nearby Jewish retirement home.
“We’ve now determined that the motivation behind this was a hate crime,” said Michael Kaste, an FBI agent. “The acts that this person committed were the result of beliefs that he had.”
None of the victims were Jewish.
Reat Griffin Underwood, 14, was shot outside the Jewish community centre on Sunday and died later in hospital. His grandfather, William Corporon, died at the scene.
Terri LeManno, 53, was shot dead 1.6km away at the Village Shalom retirement community.
Kaste said that the religious beliefs of the victims do not matter because hate crimes are tied to the biases and beliefs of the suspect.
Steve Howe, the Johnson County district attorney and Barry Grissom, the US attorney for the District of Kansas, said they were collaborating on charges in local and federal courts.