One killed at Kansas City Jewish Center, gunfire at another Jewish center

[Adam]

Suspect arrested after gunman kills one at Jewish Community Center in Overland Park

One person is reported dead and another injured after someone shot into the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park Sunday afternoon.

More gunfire was reported at the Village Shalom senior living facility 5500 W. 123rd St.

Police arrested a male suspect by 2:45 p.m. at a school at 123rd Street and Lamar Avenue.

The center at 5801 W. 115th Street was locked down while police hunt for the shooter.

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I have a hard time believing that this is a coincidence.

[Adam]

More:

OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV) - Three people are dead after shootings at Jewish-related locations in the Kansas City area. Authorities confirm that a suspect is in custody.

One of the dead was killed in the parking lot of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City.

Authorities also confirmed that a one person was undergoing surgery at Overland Park Regional Medical Center. It wasn't immediately clear whether that one person died in surgery and was one of the three dead or was a fourth person shot.

A suspect was arrested at the Valley View Park Elementary School, which is a mile away from Village Shalom. KCTV5's Bonyen Lee says the suspect appeared to yell "Heil Hitler" as he was being led away in handcuffs by Overland Park police.

[Tom Servo]

I understand the shooter spewed some anti-Jewish epithets upon arrest, so this looks like a case of religious hatred.

At first I thought it might be Jew on Jew violence, whereupon I would have to ask if the shooter got the bullets wholesale.

[phillygirl]

Apparently two of the victims were grandfather and grandson. How awful for the families.

[Lanie]

Just in time for Passover.

[Adam]

Just in time for Passover.

I can't help but wonder if he picked yesterday specifically for that reason.

The guy is a scorching racist and anti-Semite. He's run for office several times, a few in North Carolina and a couple in Missouri, under Republican and Democratic banners, and then most recently in 2010, neither party would accept his filing fee, so he ran as an independent, getting seven votes total (probably his own vote and those of his family). He did federal time on some weapons charges and possibly was still on parole, which means that it's most likely that he should have been barred from owning weapons at all, though since he apparently did vote recently, it's possible that he petitioned to have his gun rights restored as well as his voting rights.

At first blush, it would seem that the FBI did a piss-poor job of keeping an eye on this guy as a likely threat.

[phillygirl]

I can't help but wonder if he picked yesterday specifically for that reason.

The guy is a scorching racist and anti-Semite. He's run for office several times, a few in North Carolina and a couple in Missouri, under Republican and Democratic banners, and then most recently in 2010, neither party would accept his filing fee, so he ran as an independent, getting seven votes total (probably his own vote and those of his family). He did federal time on some weapons charges and possibly was still on parole, which means that it's most likely that he should have been barred from owning weapons at all, though since he apparently did vote recently, it's possible that he petitioned to have his gun rights restored as well as his voting rights.

At first blush, it would seem that the FBI did a piss-poor job of keeping an eye on this guy as a likely threat.

Short of 24 hour escorts, how exactly do you "keep an eye" on someone like this?

[Adam]

Short of 24 hour escorts, how exactly do you "keep an eye" on someone like this?

The same way they keep an eye on other potential threats: watch their movements, see if they're engaging in something they shouldn't be engaging in or otherwise raises red flags (like a convicted felon buying multiple guns), seeing inf he's engaging in suspicious activity (such as casing the JCC), etc. This is routine FBI field office work.

[Novaheart]

With sympathy for the grieving, I have to say that my first reaction to this was that we will have to listen to a load of crap from the SPLC and ilk for months if not years because of this. They will have to jump over the thousands of bodies of people killed in terrorism and "hate crimes" in this country as well as garden variety murders of passion or profit. Doubtlessly, some will even excuse their political opportunism and exploit these deaths in the pursuit of gun control. It's simply the way it is.

[Adam]

With sympathy for the grieving, I have to say that my first reaction to this was that we will have to listen to a load of crap from the SPLC and ilk for months if not years because of this. They will have to jump over the thousands of bodies of people killed in terrorism and "hate crimes" in this country as well as garden variety murders of passion or profit. Doubtlessly, some will even excuse their political opportunism and exploit these deaths in the pursuit of gun control. It's simply the way it is.

Of course they will. The SPLC has yet to even admit their own culpability in the hate crime that they themselves helped perpetrate. I'm sure the Brady campaign will be out there on the stump before the end of the week, and DiFi will wave around a howitzer telling us all how dangerous it is for "ordinary people" to have a ten-round "magazine clip."

[phillygirl]

The same way they keep an eye on other potential threats: watch their movements, see if they're engaging in something they shouldn't be engaging in or otherwise raises red flags (like a convicted felon buying multiple guns), seeing inf he's engaging in suspicious activity (such as casing the JCC), etc. This is routine FBI field office work.

I'm sure there are literally tens of thousands of potential threats and trying to keep track of all of them is a nearly impossible job. At what point is someone just a crazy loon versus someone planning an attack. In this day and age, it's a rather small scale attack, in any event. Not to diminish the loss of those affected, but it's not as if he managed to take out a skyscraper.