Police say the white man who killed two black people in a Kentucky Kroger tried to enter First Baptist Jeffersontown, a predominantly black church, just minutes earlier, CNN reports.
CNN affiliate WDRB adds that the shooter, 51-year-old Gregory Bush, was seen pulling and banging on the church doors, both on surveillance video and by a witness in the parking lot. When he couldn’t get into the church, he went to a nearby Kroger.
Witness Ed Harrell was shopping there when the shooting occurred, the Courier Journal reports. Harrell had gone out to the parking lot to wait for his wife when Bush walked past.
When Harrell, who had a revolver, asked Bush what was happening, he says Bush replied “Don’t shoot me. I won’t shoot you. Whites don’t shoot whites.”
This, combined with Bush’s attempt to go into the church, have led many to believe it was a racially motivated attack.
According to WDRB, Bush has a long history of violence and mental health issues.
He’s had run-ins with the law since the 1990s, but 2009 was a particularly busy year. He was convicted of 4th-degree assault after allegedly punching his father and picking his mother up by the neck, both of whom claimed he locked them in the house against their will.
In that same year, two different judges ordered that Bush’s weapons be taken away and he comply with a mental health treatment. In May 2009, he was arrested for domestic violence, making it illegal for him to own a gun.
Though mental health disorders are serious, it’s important that we don’t conflate them with racism and violence. Plenty of people struggle with mental health problems, and never harm themselves or anyone else.
This shooting took place at the intersection of a number of different issues: mental health, racism, and guns.
Yes, literally speaking, guns do shoot people. But guns can’t pull their own triggers.
Bush wasn’t supposed to have a firearm, but he got his hands on one anyways. Somewhere along the way, there was an oversight.
An unnamed bystander in the Kroger parking lot had a concealed carry permit, and fired at Bush as he left the scene, CNN reports. This didn’t prevent the deaths of Maurice Stallard and Vickie Jones.