The suspected gunman accused of fatally shooting 2 people at a Kroger grocery store reportedly tried to enter a black church minutes earlier
- The suspected gunman accused of killing two black people at a Kroger supermarket in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, on Wednesday attempted to enter a predominantly black church minutes before the attack.
- Surveillance video at the nearby First Baptist Church showed Gregory Bush, a 51-year-old white man from nearby Louisville, unsuccessfully trying to pry open the church's front doors.
The suspected gunman who killed two black people during a shooting spree at a Kroger supermarket in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, on Wednesday reportedly tried to enter a black church minutes earlier, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Gregory Bush, a 51-year-old white man from Louisville, Kentucky, was arraigned on Thursday on charges of murder in the deaths of Vickie Lee Jones, 67, and Maurice E. Stallard, 69, in addition to 10 counts of wanton endangerment.
Surveillance footage at the First Baptist Church in Jeffersontown roughly two miles away from where the shooting took place showed Bush trying to break into the church, Jeffersontown Police Chief Sam Rogers said at a news conference on Thursday.
Between eight and 10 parishioners were inside the church at the time Bush attempted to get in just after midweek service, the church administrator Billy Williams told The Times.
"There were 70 people here at our weekly meeting service just an hour before he came by," Williams said. "I'm just thankful that all of our doors and security was in place."
According to a witness cited by NBC News, Bush's rampage may have been racially motivated. The unnamed witness said that after Bush allegedly shot Jones and Stallard, he told a bystander "whites don't kill whites."
Bush was arrested minutes after the shooting.