OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Authorities said three people died after shootings at a Jewish community center and a retirement community in suburban Kansas City, on Sunday, and two others were shot at but not injured.
Overland Park spokesman Sean Reilly said two people died at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City campus in Overland Park, and one person was killed at Village Shalom, a retirement community several blocks away from the center.
Police arrested the suspected assailant in an elementary school parking lot shortly after the attacks.
At a news conference, Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said the suspect is in his 70s, is not from Kansas and wasn’t known to area law enforcement officials before the attacks. He also said there is no indication that the suspect knew any of the victims.
Douglass said the suspect made several statements to police, “but it’s too early to tell you what he may or may not have said.”
He also said it was too early in the investigation to determine whether there was an anti-Semitic motive for the attacks or if they will be investigated as hate crimes.
“We are investigating it as a hate crime. We’re investigating it as a criminal act. We haven’t ruled out anything. … Again, we’re three hours into it,” he said.
Family members identified two of the three people killed as a man and his 14-year-old grandson. Will Corporon issued a statement saying his father, Dr. William Lewis Corporon, and nephew, Reat Griffin Underwood, were killed.
The Jewish Community Center posted on its Facebook page Sunday afternoon that a “shooting incident” happened near its White Theater entrance. A later post said that no shooting occurred inside, but in a parking lot.
St. Louis resident Kristy Straeb, 47, said her sister-in-law, Stacie Ventimiglia, was at the center’s pool with a friend and four little girls under the age of 7 for a swimming lesson, which ended about 12:45 p.m. Straeb said they decided at the last minute to get the girls showered.
“They had just gotten the four babies naked, and somebody yelled into the family locker room, ‘We have an active shooter situation. You need to get safe,’” Straeb said.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 04/14/2014