On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that a state prosecutor has filed charges against a 73-year-old white supremacist for the deaths of three people form a shooting spree that happened outside two Jewish community facilities on Sunday. State district attorney Stephen Howe for Johnson County said in a news conference that Frazier Glenn Miller of Aurora, Missouri has been charged with one count of capital murder and one count of premeditated first-degree murder. Miller could face the death penalty should he get a conviction.
Meanwhile, United States attorney Barry Grissom for the District of Kansas also said in the news conference that his office will be pursuing hate crime-related federal charges against Miller, and has plans to present evidence to a grand jury soon. Grissom noted that the federal charges too could get Miller a death penalty sentence if he gets convicted.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Miller is also known as Frazier Glenn Cross, who is the founder grand dragon of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina. The hate group monitoring organization also added that Miller has a long history of antipathy towards blacks aside from Jews.
The Times said that it was not clear what motivated Miller to drive to Overland Park along with a shotgun and handgun at least over the weekend despite the fact that he is a known supremacist.
Miller's victims near the Jewish Community Center were William Lewis Corporon, 69, a longtime physician, and his 14-year-old grandson. Terri LaManno, 53, was also shot just outside the retirement facility Village Shalom where her mother currently resides.
Will Corporon, the son and uncle to the first two victims, had told reporters about his grief this week and said, "It takes no character to do what was done. It takes no strength of character. It takes no backbone. It takes no morals. It takes no ethics. All it takes is an idiot with a gun, so there's no need to focus on that."
