The man who is alleged to have shot dead three people at a Jewish community centre and home for the elderly near Kansas City has been described as “nice and friendly” by the Mayor of Marionville, Missouri, Dan Clevenger.

Speaking to local TV station KSPR about alleged former Ku Klux Klan leader Frazier Glenn Cross Jr - the prime suspect for the shootings last Sunday - Mr Clevenger said: “He [Cross] was always nice and friendly and respectful of elder people. He respected his elders greatly, as long as they were the same colour as him.”

Mr Clevenger, who was friendly with Cross when the alleged attacker lived near him in Missouri, added that he “kind of agreed with [him] on some things, but I don’t like to express that too much”.

When pressed for details, Mr Clevenger said: “There are some things that are going on in this country that are destroying us.

“The fact that the Federal Reserve prints up phony money and freely hands it out, I think that’s completely wrong. The people that run the Federal Reserve, they’re Jewish.”

Commenting on the rampage - in which 14-year-old Reat Griffin Underwood, his grandfather, William Lewis Corporon and a woman, Terri LaMano were murdered - Mr Clevenger said it was “shocking”, but that he could “understand why he would be the one to do that.”

He said: “I imagine when he goes to trial, he will be able to really state his views on things, and I think he’s just wanting to go out with a bang.”

Cross is currently being held in Johnson County jail in Kansas, where he has been charged with one count of capital murder and one count of first-degree, premeditated murder. If found guilty of capital murder, he may face the death penalty.