Gunman Kills 3 at US Jewish Centers | WPN World People News

Authorities in the central U.S. state of Kansas say a man is in custody after killing three people Sunday outside a Jewish community center and a Jewish retirement community.

Officials told reporters hours after the shooting in the Kansas city suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, that it was too early to say if the man in his 70s had an anti-Semitic motive.

Police Chief John Douglass called it a "vicious act of violence," but that more has to be known before it could be labeled a hate crime.

He said the shooter used a shotgun to kill two of the victims in the parking lot of the community center, which offers a range of activities and programs for Jews and non-Jews in the area. A family member said those killed were members of a local Christian church.

Douglass said the shooter then drove to the nearby retirement community and killed a woman before being arrested at an elementary school.

President Barack Obama called the shooting "horrific" and "heartbreaking," and expressed his support and that of his wife, Michelle, for the victims' families.

Source: Voice of America