Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty for Kansas Anti-Semitic Gunman
April 15, 2014Prosecutors filed a death penalty murder charge Tuesday against a white supremacist accused of fatally shooting three people at Jewish sites over the weekend, judicial sources said.
Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, was charged with one count of capital murder for the deaths of a 69-year-old physician and his teenage grandson outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City.
He also faces one count of first-degree murder for the death of a 53-year-old woman at the nearby Village Shalom retirement community where she was paying a weekly visit to her mother.
Cross was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. (1830 GMT), a spokeswoman for Johnson County District Attorney Stephen Howe told AFP by telephone.
Sunday’s bloodshed – on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Pesach (Passover) – occurred in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park. All three victims were Christian.
Local police, FBI agents and federal prosecutors said Monday they intended to pursue Cross for hate crimes, which under federal law calls for tougher sentencing.
Cross shouted “Heil Hitler” from the back of a police car when he was taken into custody Sunday.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League described Cross as a North Carolina native and former US army Green Beret commando who, in the 1980s, founded and led the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Patriot Party.
The center, which monitors hate groups, said Cross, a Vietnam war veteran, is well-known for espousing anti-Semitic and white supremacist views.
He spent three years in federal prison after being indicted on weapons charges and for plotting robberies and the murder of the law center’s co-founder Morris Dees.
More recently, resettling in rural Aurora, Missouri, Cross helped launch a short-lived newspaper called The Aryan Alternative and “actively promoted his racist and anti-Semitic views online,” the Anti-Defamation League said.
“I’m a patriotic white man… The only thing I ain’t figured out is whether to hate all you (expletive) Jews or just the Zionists,” Cross candidly told Kansas City television station KMBC in a 2006 interview.
Similar posts
-
Israel Is Held To A Higher Standard Than Any Country
April 25, 2024In the intricate tapestry of global affairs, one nation stands out for enduring scrutiny and condem...
-
Israel Has The Most Moral Military In The World
April 10, 2024In the heart of a region often riddled with conflict, Israel stands out not only for its technologi...
-
The Resilience of the Israeli People
April 2, 2024Visitors from around the world have seen Hamas's October 7th Massacre's destruction in southern Isr...
-
Israel: Small Size, Big Impact
March 21, 2024Nestled along the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, Israel is a land of immense historical sig...
-
Israelis Are Fighting For Their Lives
February 21, 2024By Jonathan S. Tobin The world looks a lot different from Kibbutz Kfar Aza than it does in the U...
-
Over 2 Million Arabs Live In Israel
January 23, 2024In the complex landscape of the Middle East, where diverse cultures and identities intersect, Israe...
-
'Fauda' Star Idan Amedi Injured Fighting in Gaza
January 8, 2024Despite the severity of his injuries, Amedi's father assured Israeli news channels that his life is...
-
Israel Is A Great Country To Live In
December 28, 2023Nestled at the crossroads of the Middle East, Israel stands as a vibrant and dynamic nation, offeri...
