Passover Eve attack: Three dead, one injured; 70-yr-old shooter in custody

This happened six miles from my house, and I was driving by when the shooting occurred, but wasn't aware of it.

Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said his department realized they had an "active shooter" situation and enacted protocols that allowed them to check multiple facilities in the city quickly, enabling them apprehend the suspect quickly. He was found at a Blue Valley School District elementary school in Overland Park, about a mile form Village Shalom.

I got less than a half-mile past the community center when I saw three OPPD patrol cars headed north and realized something must have happened. It occurred to me I saw people running in the JCC parking lot, but I didn't think much of it. That's weird, isn't it? This was going on and I was oblivious, inside my truck, listening to Christian music and having not a clue.

I realize the healing that is going to have to take place in our city. That hasn't occurred to me before, when other incidents of this type have happened, but our city is hurting right now.

Please, during the next few days, please pray for the victims' families, by thankful for our quick-thinking police department, and pray that we as a city take time to pray for healing, and that we turn to God as a community following this tragedy. Thanks.

 

Underwood and Corporon were not even Jewish, though Cross has been identified by Overland Park police as a white supremacist who served time in the Missouri penitentiary for racist and anti-Semitic activities nearly 30 years ago.

Though I am not in favor of hate crime legislation, and I don't believe Kansas' hate crime rider should be attached to formal charges against Cross -- he killed three people in a single incident, that's enough for the death penalty in our state as it is -- it is obvious hate had a great deal to do with his driving 170 miles to commit what is evident to be a premeditated shooting.

As I asked in the OP, pray for our city, particularly for the families of the victims of this insanity. We all have a great deal to deal with over the coming months.