On a rainy Palm Sunday, April 13, 2014, William Lewis Corporon, a 69-year-old male physician, drove his grandson to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City in Overland Park, Kansas. They were arriving for his 14-year-old grandson's audition for "KC Superstar," a local singing competition. As they pulled into the rear parking lot, their car was suddenly ambushed by a gunman who opened fire. Dr. Corporon was struck by a shotgun blast to the head and died at the scene.
His grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, was also shot and later died from his injuries at a hospital. Both Dr. Corporon and his grandson were Christian.
The attacker, Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., a 73-year-old man from Aurora, Missouri, did not stop there. After fleeing the Jewish Community Center, he drove a little over a mile to Village Shalom, a Jewish retirement community. In the parking lot, he shot and killed a third person, Terri LaManno, a 53-year-old occupational therapist who was visiting her mother. Miller’s rampage was fueled by a deep-seated hatred for Jewish people; he was a known white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and former Klansman who had traveled to the area with the specific intent to murder Jews. Tragically, none of the three individuals he killed were of the Jewish faith.
Witnesses saw the gunman fire at several other people, though he missed them. The attack sparked a swift police response, and Miller was arrested by police officers at 2:45 p.m. outside a nearby elementary school. As he was taken into custody, witnesses reported that he yelled "Heil Hitler" and made other antisemitic statements. Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. was later tried and convicted of capital murder for the deaths of William Corporon, Reat Underwood, and Terri LaManno. He was sentenced to death for his crimes and died in prison in 2021 while awaiting execution.
