Mindy Corporon, who lost both her father and her son in the Kansas City shootings over the weekend, showed extraordinary strength in a public statement Monday that was closely covered by the stations in DMA No. 31. Mindy's father, William, had brought her son Reat, 14, to the Jewish Community Center to compete in a singing competition. They were two of the three people shot and killed. The third has been identified as Terri Lamanno.
Her poise is remarkable during the six-minute video on KMBC's website (the various Kansas City station sites alternately refer to her as Mindy Corporon and Mindy Losen). She even smiles a few times while recalling the "really full life" her son had.
"We didn't want to hide and not let people grieve with us," Corporon said. "People keep saying, 'How come you're so strong?' And I'm strong because I have family. I'm strong because I have faith."
KMBC's videos are featured on CNN.com, which leads with the latest on Flight 370.
Corporon says she wants "something good to come out of this. We don't know what that is gonna be." She encourages others to reach out if they can find a positive stemming from her double tragedy.
Fox affiliate WDAF features its 5 p.m. news from April 13 on its website, a few hours after the shootings.
Frazier Glenn Cross, an alleged white supremacist, is the suspect in the murders. KSHB's site digs into his past. "In the 1980s, he began publishing white supremacist literature and organizing paramilitary groups in North Carolina," says the site. "He was ultimately named 'Grand Dragon' of the Carolina KKK."
The authorities said he has spoken and written of his hatred for Jews, among other groups. Corporon's father and son were Methodist, says the New York Times, and Lamanno was Catholic.
KMBC's video of the suspect apparently shouting "Heil Hitler" is linked to by the New York Times.
KCTV has Mindy Corporon at a different vigil April 13, speaking for two minutes. The video is credited to the Kansas City Star newspaper and runs a little over two minutes. She again shows stunning poise in this video.
Corporon concluded: "You have to reach to God; you have to reach to your friends and search your soul, and that’s what it’s about. It’s about us who are living and it’s about loving and caring for one another.”
