WASHINGTON — The suspect in the deadly April 13 shooting attack on two Jewish targets in a Kansas City, Kan., suburb was identified as a prominent white supremacist.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate group monitor, identified the alleged gunman as Frazier Glenn Miller, 73, of Aurora, Mo., and said he was the “grand dragon” of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1980s and subsequently a founder of the White Patriot Party. The centre said Miller served three years in prison on weapons charges and for plotting the assassination of its founder, Morris Dees.
CBS News also identified the suspect as Miller, and a security source confirmed to JTA that the suspect had a long history in the supremacist movement.
Miller is suspected of killing a grandfather and his grandson at the Jewish community centre in Overland Park, Kan., then killing a female resident of Village Shalom, a Jewish assisted-living facility a few blocks away.
The family of the victims killed at the JCC identified them as William Lewis Corporon and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood. A local TV station said they were members of the Church of Resurrection.
The JCC was reportedly hosting a dance class and an audition for a play, both for teenagers.
U.S. President Barack Obama pledged “the full support of the federal government” in the investigation, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent condolences to the families of those killed.
“We condemn the murder that by all the signs was done out of hatred of Jews. The State of Israel, as one with all civilized people, is obligated to struggle against this blight,” Netanyahu said in a statement April 14.
Police authorities in Kansas City had not determined on Monday whether the attacks are a hate crime. The ADL said in its statement that it’s working with local, federal and state law enforcement officials as the investigation continues.
B’nai Brith Canada expressed its sympathies to the victims’ families, adding that “given the location of the shooting, the reports of shouts of Heil Hitler as the suspected perpetrator… was taken into custody, as well as the fact that it [came] just before… [Passover], this must be investigated as a hate crime. While this appears to be an isolated incident, every precaution should be exercised here in Canada.”
UJA Federation of Greater Toronto said it was taking precautions.
“We have reached out to all three JCCs and the Wolfond Centre, and have arranged additional security for those institutions in the interim,” CEO Ted Sokolsky said.