Witnesses Testify Against White Supremacist Charged in Kansas Jewish Murders
Frazier Glenn Cross Jr. Image by Getty Images
A Kansas police officer testified on Monday about finding a young boy and his grandfather shot in the head outside a Jewish community center, one of many witnesses who testified against the white supremacist who is charged with killing three people in a Kansas City suburb last April.
As many as 22 witnesses were on the list to testify in the case against Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., 74 as a judge weighs whether or not he should stand trial. Cross could face the death penalty if convicted at trial.
Cross, shackled and seated in a wheelchair because he is ill during the hearing, was known to law enforcement as a former senior member of the Ku Klux Klan who had expressed hatred for Jewish people. Authorities charged him with shooting three people in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park on April 13.
Cross, also known as Glenn Miller, is charged with capital murder in the killings of Reat Underwood, 14, and his grandfather William Corporon, 69, outside the Jewish center, and the killing of Terri LaManno, 53, who was shot to death outside the nearby Village Shalom Jewish retirement home.
Overland Park police detective Marty Ingram testified Monday that he was off duty but working as a security guard at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City when shots rang out. Ingram testified in Johnson County District Court in Olathe, Kansas that he found Corporon and Underwood both shot in the head.
Ingram said he and other witnesses rushed to a nearby location where other officers had apprehended Cross, and he heard Cross say “Heil Hitler,” and then ask: “How many… jews did I kill?”
Though the victims were all shot at Jewish facilities, none of them were Jewish.
Another witness, James Coombes, said he saw Cross firing on Corporon and Underwood before Cross aimed the gun in his direction.
“I was shocked,” Coombes told the court. “About three shots rang out and I laid back on the seat.” Coombes was not injured.
Another witness, Paul Temme, said he ran after the shooter’s vehicle to identify the license plate when the gunman turned on him and fired at least one shot, missing.
“I dove to the ground, got up and kept running,” he said.
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