President Obama and other political leaders are reacting to reports that three people were killed at or near Jewish centers outside of Kansas City, offering condolences to the victims’ families and pledging to assist the investigation.
A 73-year-old Missouri man with a long history of anti-Semitism, identified in wire reports as Frazier Glenn Cross, is accused of shooting a boy and his grandfather outside a Jewish community center and then a woman outside a Jewish assisted-living facility a few blocks away.
Authorities in Overland Park, Kan., charged him with first-degree murder.
“While we do not know all of the details surrounding today’s shooting, the initial reports are heartbreaking,” Mr. Obama said. “I want to offer my condolences to all the families trying to make sense of this difficult situation and pledge the full support from the federal government as we heal and cope during this trying time.”
Sen. Jerry Moran, Kansas Republican, said he is “shocked and sickened by the violence that occurred in Overland Park and Leawood today.”
“Kansas is a place where every person of every kind should be safe from violence or persecution,” he said. “My deepest regrets are with the victims’ loved ones and my thoughts are with the entire community, which has had its sense of comfort and safety threatened by today’s events. I join all Kansans in proclaiming that these horrific acts of violence have absolutely no place in our communities, our state or our country.”
SEE ALSO: Supremacist ID’d as suspect in deadly shootings at two Jewish sites in Kansas
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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