WHITES DON’T SHOOT WHITES

Suspect tried to enter predominantly black church before Louisville Kroger shooting

Associated Press
October 25, 2018

The white man accused of shooting two black people at a Louisville Kroger store had minutes earlier tried unsuccessfully to enter predominantly black First Baptist church in Jeffersontown, police chief Sam Rogers said Thursday.

Rogers continued to say he “can’t speculate on motive at this time,” but Gregory Alan Bush’s comment during the attack and actions have raised questions about whether race was a factor when he shot a grandfather in the back of the head in the store and a Veterans Affairs hospital office administrator in the parking lot.

Bush had a history of violence and mental illness, and the FBI is reviewing evidence to determine if there was any evidence of violations of federal law.

Ed Harrell was quoted by the Courier Journal as saying he was waiting on his wife in the parking lot when he heard gunshots and grabbed his revolver. As he crouched down, he said he saw the gunman walk “nonchalantly” by with a gun by his side. He said he called out to ask what was going on, and the gunman replied: “Don’t shoot me. I won’t shoot you. Whites don’t shoot whites.”

Arrest and coroner’s reports say Bush walked into the store outside Louisville, pulled a gun from his waist and shot 69-year-old Maurice Stallard, 69, in the back of the head, then kept shooting him multiple times “as he was down on the floor.” The reports say Bush then reholstered his gun, walked outside and shot 67-year-old Vicki Lee Jones in the parking lot.

Bystander video shows a white man in a distinctive neon-yellow shirt trying to drive away while an officer chases after him on foot. Many more officers converged on the scene and made the arrest on Wednesday afternoon.

Bush, 51, was jailed on $5 million bond Thursday on two counts of murder and 10 counts of felony wanton endangerment.

The coroner’s office identified the victims. Stallard is father of Kellie Watson, the chief racial equity officer for Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer.

The mayor shared his outrage Thursday over what he called an “epidemic of gun violence” that “hit close to home.”

“Somehow, a few have become so beholden to politics that they place a higher value on that than on the lives of our fellow Americans,” said Fischer, a Democrat running for re-election.

“People getting shot at a grocery store, a school, outside a church. Can’t we all agree that that is unacceptable?” Fischer said at a news conference.

Jones, a grandmother who worked for the Veterans Affairs hospital and was the mother of two sons, was remembered Thursday as “warm and giving,” by her nephew Keith Gunn. Gunn says it is hard to accept his aunt’s death “because she was one of the sweetest people you could know” with a “warm and giving” heart.

Bush’s criminal record shows he threatened his ex-wife and punched a deputy sheriff during a family court hearing years ago.

An arrest record from May 2009 says Bush became “irate” and shouted obscenities and threats at his ex-wife. When deputies tried to subdue him, he fought off attempts to handcuff him and he punched a deputy twice. He was charged with several counts, including assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Bush also was marked as a “suicide risk” on the arrest sheet, which noted that his ex-wife had a protective order against him.

In 2009, Bush punched his then 78-year-old father in the face and grabbed his 74-year-old mother by the neck “and picked her up off the ground,” according to their accounts to police. Police wrote in the report that Bush’s parents are “terrified of (his) unpredictable behavior.”

In a 2003 incident, Bush was charged with menacing for following a 15-year-old into a movie theater bathroom and putting his hands around her waist. Bush told the girl he “thought we were family” and the girl pushed him away, according to the arrest record.

Prior to his attack on the Kroger customers Wednesday, Bush was caught on surveillance video trying to enter the church, Rogers said. It’s not clear why he could not gain entry.

Witnesses described the chaos from the shooting.

Eric Deacon, who identified himself as an emergency medical technician, told The Associated Press that he was in the store’s self-checkout lane when he heard the first shot, in the pharmacy area.

He said a man came around the corner and “the look on his face, he looked like he just didn’t care.”

Deacon said he saw another man in the store with a gun who appeared to be shooting at the suspect. Then Deacon went outside and saw a woman in her mid-50s or early 60s who had been hit, and tried to resuscitate her.

“She was gone, there’s nothing I could do,” Deacon said. “I think she just got caught in the crossfire.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: So much for the argument if only an armed citizen had been there. There was one inside the store who opened fire at the shooter but missed. The shooter then went on to kill an elderly woman.

The best that can be said is that the armed citizen did not hit any innocent bystanders.