Child slain outside school by father

LIBERTY, Mo. -- A man waiting outside his son's school shot the fourth-grader to death and wounded the boy's mother after a domestic dispute Thursday, police said.

Jaswinder Singh, 41, was charged Thursday night with first-degree murder, assault and two counts of armed criminal action, a Clay County dispatcher said. Singh was being held without bond.

He was arrested about an hour after the shooting in a liquor store in Kansas City, about 20 miles to the southwest.

The boy's mother underwent surgery and was expected to recover, police said Thursday night. Police declined to name the hospital.

The shootings happened around 12:30 p.m. when the woman was picking up the child from St. James Catholic School, which serves 322 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The boy's sister also attended the school, but was not injured. Police said she witnessed the shooting. She was being cared for by Clay County juvenile authorities.

Liberty police Lt. Mark Misenhelter said the gunman was the child's father but it was unclear whether he was married to the woman, with whom he had argued in the parking lot. Investigators believe a handgun was used in the shooting, although no weapon had been recovered, Misenhelter said.

Kansas City police spokesman Tony Sanders said the suspect was arrested after police got a tip that the man had said he was trying to get out of town because he had just shot someone.

The school is located near Interstate 35, and the suspect was arrested near an I-35 exit in Kansas City, police said.

Identities and ages of the victims were not immediately available. Police said the boy died at the scene.

Rebecca Summers, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, said all students were accounted for and the building was locked down after the shooting. Other Liberty schools were also locked down.

Students from St. James were immediately sent to a nearby movie theater to be picked up by their parents, who emerged from the theater hand-in-hand with their children.

Ed Ludwig rushed to the theater to retrieve his 7-year-old granddaughter, a second-grader. He heard about the shooting on television.

"I just rushed up here as fast as I could," he said after walking out of the theater with his granddaughter. "I didn't even shut up the house."

Ed Hughes, who had children who graduated from St. James, said he rushed to the school after hearing about the shootings on TV. He directed parents outside the movie theater.

"We're a very close-knit, very loving community. So I just had to see how I could help," he said.