WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder says Justice Department prosecutors will investigate whether federal hate crimes were committed in the Kansas shootings that killed three people over the weekend.

In a statement Monday, Holder said he has instructed the department to provide all available support to state and local authorities to determine whether the shootings outside Kansas City involved federal hate crimes law.

The attorney general says the senseless acts of violence at two Jewish facilities are all the more heartbreaking because they were carried out on the eve of Passover.

Holder says the Justice Department will do everything in its power to ensure justice is served in the case on behalf of the victims and their families.

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