Police in US classify Jewish shooting as hate crime

Washington: An alleged anti-Semite who fatally shot three people at a Jewish center and retirement home in Kansas will be prosecuted for hate crimes, police said on Monday.

Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, now in custody, is a former Ku Klux Klan leader with a history of anti-Semitism, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in the United States.

He reportedly yelled "Heil Hitler" as police escorted him away Sunday after the shooting in Overland Park, outside Kansas City.

"We have unquestionably determined that this was a hate crime," Overland Park police chief John Douglass told a press conference.

Under federal law, prosecutors can seek a life in prison for those convicted of murder if they are found to have been motivated by racial or religious hatred.

"We are in a very good place" to prosecute Cross for hate crimes, said Barry Grissom, US attorney for the district of Kansas, adding that his office would be making its case to a grand jury "in the not too distant future."

The shooting began at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City around 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Sunday as youths auditioned for a play, then continued at the nearby Village Shalom assisted living center.

Douglass identified the dead as a 69-year-old and his 14-year-old grandson at the community center, and a 53-year-old who was visiting her mother, as she did every Sunday, at the assisted living center.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said religious violence has no place in US society, as he attended an Easter prayer breakfast at the White House.

"Nobody should have to worry about their security when gathering with their fellow believers. No one should have to fear for their safety when they go to prayer," Obama said at the White House.

Attorney General Eric Holder meanwhile said the Justice Department was looking into whether the incident fell under federal hate crimes laws, which could bring even stiffer punishment.