Category: Overland Park

Shooting near Jewish Community Center to be treated as hate crime

The shooting deaths of three persons Sunday near the Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom in Overland Park will be treated as a hate crime, federal and Johnson County officials said today.

The three victims of the shootings were identified as Reat Griffin Underwood, 14, Stilwell, Kan.; his grandfather, Dr. William Corporon, 69, Overland Park, Kan., both of whom were in the parking lot near the Jewish Community Center; and Terri (Hastings) LaManno, 53, Kansas City, Mo., who was visiting her mother at Village Shalom.

President Obama expressed his condolences to the victims and the people of Overland Park today and Sunday.

The man in custody, Frazier Glenn Cross, also known as Frazier Glenn Miller, 73, of Aurora, Mo., has connections to white supremacist groups.

On Sunday, a human rights activist from Kansas City, Kan., Alvin Sykes, called for a federal criminal civil rights investigation into the shooting deaths.

On Monday, Leonard Zeskind of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, stated that the suspect in the past had created a heavily armed paramilitary organization in North Carolina, and that IREHR seeks “complete justice” in this case.

SPLC says man arrested for Jewish Community Center killings is a long-time white supremacist

The Southern Poverty Law Center is reporting that the man arrested in Johnson County for shooting three persons near the Jewish Community Center is a white supremacist and long-time anti-Semite.

According to records from the Johnson County Jail, the man arrested was Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, of Aurora, Mo.

He was booked on charges of premeditated first-degree murder.

He also is known by the name Frazier Glenn Miller and is the former “grand dragon” of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

He ran the organization in the 1980s, the SPLC reported. He subsequently formed the White Patriot Party, another white supremacist group, according to SPLC.

SPLC reported that Miller is an anti-Semite who posted more than 12,000 comments on an anti-Jewish website.

To view the SPLC website, visit http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2014/04/13/frazier-glenn-miller-longtime-anti-semite-arrested-in-kansas-jewish-community-center-murders/.

 

Revolve KC accepts donations

Art Gough, who has been a volunteer since 2011, and Liz Bejan, the founder of Revolve KC, attended a recent Earn-a-Bike fundraiser at Whole Foods Market. (Photo by William Crum)

by William Crum

Revolve KC recently accepted donations in connection with a fundraiser at Whole Foods Market, 91st and Metcalf, Overland Park, Kan.
Five percent of the store sales on a recent day was donated to the Earn-a-Bike program sponsored by Revolve KC. According to Liz Bejan, the founder of Revolve KC, it was a huge success.
“We got a lot of donations and this will help us out greatly,” she said.
Revolve KC is the only program where youths may take a bike safety test and receive a reconditioned bicycle. With the summer months coming and the many bike trails that there are in the Kansas City area, bicycling would be a great way to get fit and a way to save gasoline as well.
Revolve KC has an office at 554 Central Ave., Kansas City, Kan.
For more information on how to volunteer or get free bikes, go to the website www.revolvekc.org.