OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Next week, the trial of Frazier Cross is set to begin. He is accused of killing three people outside of the Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom.
Prosecutors say four other people were also victims of Cross. They got away with their lives, but their lives have changed forever.
Jay Coombes had gone from church to the Jewish Community Center Sunday, April 13, 2014. When he got out of his car, he says he saw William Corporon laying on the ground and someone screaming to call 911. He thought Corporon had simply fallen from his car.
Coombes says a white car pulled up, and he was going to ask for a cell phone to call for help, but instead Frazier Cross pulled out a gun and fired six shots at him, narrowly missing him.
“I can’t hold that hate, because holding that hate is just like him,” Coombes said.
Six shots barely missed him, but one ended up going into the bag Coombes had strapped to his body.
“I just laid back in the car and was just thinking, if I make it through this, great,” he said.
The next time Coombes would see cross in person was in court.
Cross is representing himself and has the right to question witnesses, as he did Coombes during a hearing.
“He asked me ‘why did I lay back in the car instead of running inside?’ I said ‘because you were shooting at me!’ And it’s like ‘no, no, no, no, you don’t get to have the last say here, I do because you are the one who did the wrong things,’ I didn’t.” Coombes recalled.
Coombes says he is ready to face Cross again when he testifies in the upcoming trial.
“I think I am ready to answer his questions and I think I am ready to answer them in a kind, civil manner,” he said.
Because Coombes says he has found a way to come to peace with the man who tried to kill him.
Coombes said, “What my spirituality and what my religion says to do I say, ‘I forgive you.’ The human part of me says ‘you need to pay for what you have done, especially for the people who were not as lucky as me.’”
Coombes believes part of the reason Cross is representing himself is so he can have his say in court and further his own agenda, saying.
“He wants attention, and he is getting too much attention, and even this interview is giving him attention and I just don’t think he needs. It is the wrong kind of attention. The attention he needs is someone saying ‘you’ve done something wrong. How do you plan to come to terms with this? How do you live with yourself because of what you have done,’” said Coombes.
Jury selection for the Frazier Cross trial begins Monday, April 17. Coombes is scheduled to testify April 24.
