2018 Jeffersontown shooting

Last updated

Jeffersontown Kroger shooting
Location Jeffersontown, Kentucky
DateOctober 24, 2018
2:30 pm (Eastern)
Attack type
Shooting
Deaths2
PerpetratorGregory A. Bush

On October 24, 2018, a man and woman were shot and killed by a gunman at a Kroger grocery store in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, a suburb of Louisville.

Contents

The suspect was Gregory A. Bush, age 51 who also exchanged gunfire with a bystander outside the store. After his arrest, Bush was initially charged in state court with two counts of murder and ten counts of wanton endangerment, and held on $5 million bail. [1]

On November 15, 2018, a federal grand jury in the Western District of Kentucky indicted Bush on six counts: three hate crime charges and three firearms offenses. [2] He was revealed to have made many online postings that were racially discriminatory. At a court hearing in July 2019, Bush was found mentally competent to stand trial following a psychiatric evaluation. On December 15, 2020, Bush was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Incident

According to Jeffersontown police, Bush had earlier on October 24 tried to enter a service of the First Baptist Church of Jeffersontown, a predominately black church. He was stopped by its locked doors. Police and church leaders said a surveillance video had recorded Bush's attempt. [1] [3]

Between ten and fifteen minutes later in mid-afternoon, police say Bush entered the Kroger store, where he fatally shot Maurice E. Stallard, aged 69. He went outside and fatally shot Vickie Lee Jones, aged 67, who was in the parking lot. Both victims were African American. Bush also exchanged gunfire with a bystander, who had seen him shoot Jones. [4] Another man said Bush told him, "Don't shoot me. I won't shoot you. Whites don't shoot whites" before the gunman fled. [5] He was caught and arrested by police, who arrived four minutes after being called. [1]

Perpetrator

Gregory Alan Bush was arrested by Jeffersontown police as the suspect. He is divorced and was living in Jeffersontown. According to the local police chief, Bush had a history of mental illness and domestic violence; in a 2001 incident his ex-wife (who is black) gained an emergency protective order against him; during an altercation he twice used a racial epithet against her. By this order he was barred for three years from having or buying guns. In January 2009, as a result of domestic violence against his parents, with whom Bush was living, the judge ordered him to "surrender his guns and undergo mental health treatment." [6] Bush had attacked his father and threatened to kill his parents.

In relation to the Kroger shooting, the Louisville police chief described it as a hate crime motivated by Bush's racism. [6]

The New York Times published a quote from a Facebook page appearing to belong to Bush: "My paranoid-schizophrenia finally stopped me from working and now am on mental disability. I'm lucky I made it this far with all the trouble I've caused myself when I get off my medicine." [1]

Tommy Juanso, an attorney and former friend of Bush, had said that his friend's rhetoric had become increasingly vitriolic during the heated 2016 presidential campaign and the political polarization it created. Juanso is biracial and said that Bush mocked him, calling him "The Big O" (referring to President Barack Obama). In Bush's social media accounts, such as Twitter, he had posted frequently about black-on-black crime and made racial insults. [7]

Shortly after his arrest, Bush was charged by Kentucky state prosecutors with two counts of murder and ten counts of first-degree wanton endangerment. On October 31, a Jefferson County grand jury indicted Bush on two counts of murder, one count of criminal attempted murder [the gunfight with the bystander who attempted to subdue him] and two counts of wanton endangerment. [8]

U.S Attorney Russell Coleman released a statement on October 31, that the US Attorney's Office and the FBI were "collecting the evidence necessary" to potentially charge Bush with possible violations of federal law, "which includes potential civil rights violations such as hate crimes." [9] On November 15, 2018, a grand jury in the Western District of Kentucky indicted Bush for three federal hate crime charges—two counts of shooting or killing a victim based on race or color, and one count of attempting to shoot or kill a victim based on race or color—and three firearms offenses. [2]

At a July 2019 preliminary hearing, prosecutors said that a Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center report found Bush competent to stand trial on charges stemming from the shooting. Bush has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, and wanton endangerment. [10] In November 2019, Bush returned to court and both the prosecutor and defense agreed for him to be sent back to Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center for more mental health treatment. [11]

On December 15, 2020, Bush was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to the shooting. [12] [13] He is currently being held at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in La Grange, Kentucky. [14]

Aftermath

Shortly after the incident, Kentucky State Representatives Jason Nemes and Jerry Miller pre-filed a bill to supplement the state's hate-crime law. The bill calls for a person to be charged with a hate crime, in addition to the homicide charge, if the crime was found to be motivated by "race, color, religion, sexual orientation or national origin." [15] They added criminal homicide and fetal homicide as crimes to be covered as hate crimes.

Many politicians cautioned that law enforcement investigations needed to be completed before the shootings could be classified as a hate crime. The Kroger shooting was followed by a mass shooting at a synagogue in Squirrel Hill, a neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Referring to both crimes, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement saying, "If these aren't definitions of hate crimes, I don't know what a hate crime is." He called for Bush to receive the death penalty if convicted of the charges. [16]

Many activist groups, such as Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Showing Up for Racial Justice, met with local politicians to urge that Bush be charged with a hate crime. They expressed concern that he might escape justice by using mental illness as a defense. As one member told officials, "Mental illness does not prompt you to wake up wanting to kill black people. Mental illness does not discriminate as this man did." [17] According to CNN, the event was one of three hate-motivated events that took place in the United States the same week, along with a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and a series of mail bombing attempts. [18]

An interfaith moment of silence for memorial and unity was declared by mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville on October 31 in remembrance of those persons killed at the Kroger grocery and the eleven victims at the Pittsburgh synagogue. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seattle Jewish Federation shooting</span> Anti-Semitic attack in Seattle

The Seattle Jewish Federation shooting occurred in Seattle on July 28, 2006, at around 4:00 p.m. PT, when Naveed Afzal Haq shot six women, one fatally, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisville Metro Police Department</span>

The Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) began operations on January 6, 2003, as part of the creation of the consolidated city-county government in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It was formed by the merger of the Jefferson County Police Department and the Louisville Division of Police. The Louisville Metro Police Department has been headed by Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel since January 2, 2023. LMPD divides Jefferson County into eight patrol divisions and operates a number of special investigative and support units. The LMPD is currently negotiating a consent decree with the United States Department of Justice subsequent to an investigation that determined that they have engaged in a decades long pattern of civil rights abuses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antisemitism in the United States</span> Hatred towards the Jewish people within the US

Antisemitism has existed for centuries in the United States. Most Jewish community relations agencies in the United States draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors, and the security and status of American Jews, which are both measured by the occurrence of specific incidents. FBI data shows that in every year since 1991, Jews were the most frequent victims of religiously motivated hate crimes, according to a report which was published by the Anti-Defamation League in 2019. Evidence suggests that the true number of hate crimes against Jews is underreported, as is the case for many other targeted groups. In an attempt to combat anti-Semitism, the Biden administration launched the United States’ first-ever comprehensive U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism on May 25, 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of violence against LGBT people in the United States</span>

The history of violence against LGBT people in the United States is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals (LGBT), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United States of America. Those targeted by such violence are believed to violate heteronormative rules and contravene perceived protocols of gender and sexual roles. People who are perceived to be LGBT may also be targeted. Violence can also occur between couples who are of the same sex, with statistics showing that violence among female same-sex couples is more common than among couples of the opposite sex, although male same-sex violence is less common.

Philadelphia basement kidnapping, also known as the Basement of Horrors, describes the discovery of four people, being held against their will, in conditions of deprivation on October 17, 2011, in the basement of an apartment building in the Tacony neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charleston church shooting</span> 2015 mass shooter attack at African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina

On June 17, 2015, an anti-black mass shooting occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, in which nine African Americans were killed and a tenth was injured during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Among the fatalities was the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney. Emanuel AME is one of the oldest black churches in the United States, and it has long been a center for civil rights organizing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dylann Roof</span> American mass murderer (born 1994)

Dylann Storm Roof is an American white supremacist, Neo-Nazi, and mass murderer convicted of perpetrating the Charleston church shooting on June 17, 2015, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. During a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Roof killed nine people, all African Americans, including senior pastor and state senator Clementa C. Pinckney, and injured a tenth person. After several people identified Roof as the main suspect, he became the center of a manhunt that ended the morning after the shooting with his arrest in Shelby, North Carolina. He later confessed that he committed the shooting in hopes of igniting a race war. Roof's actions in Charleston have been widely described as domestic terrorism.

The Marshall County High School shooting was a mass shooting that occurred at Marshall County High School near Benton, Kentucky, on January 23, 2018. The gunman, 15-year-old student Gabe Parker, opened fire in an open area at the school, murdering two students and injuring 14 others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pittsburgh synagogue shooting</span> 2018 massacre in Pennsylvania

The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was an antisemitic terrorist attack that took place at the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The congregation, along with New Light Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash, which also worshipped in the building, was attacked during Shabbat morning services on October 27, 2018. The perpetrator killed eleven people and wounded six, including several Holocaust survivors. It was the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Cameron (American politician)</span> Attorney General of Kentucky since 2019

Daniel Jay Cameron is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 51st attorney general of Kentucky. He was the first African-American, and the first Republican since 1943, to be elected to the office. In May 2022, Cameron announced his candidacy in the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election. He would be the first African-American governor in Kentucky history if elected.

On the night of December 28, 2019, the seventh night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, a masked man wielding a large knife or machete invaded the home of a Hasidic rabbi in Monsey, Rockland County, New York, where a Hanukkah party was underway, and began stabbing the guests. Five men were wounded, two of whom were hospitalized in critical condition. Party guests forced the assailant to flee by wielding chairs and a small table. Three months after the stabbing, the most severely injured stabbing victim, Rabbi Josef Neumann, aged 72, died of his wounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Ahmaud Arbery</span> 2020 murder in Georgia, United States

On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was murdered during a racially motivated hate crime while jogging in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood near Brunswick in Glynn County, Georgia. Three white men, who would later claim to police that they assumed he was a burglar, pursued Arbery in their trucks for several minutes, using the vehicles to block his path as he tried to run away. Two of the men, Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, were armed in one vehicle. Their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, was in another vehicle. After overtaking Arbery, Travis McMichael exited his truck, pointing his weapon at Arbery. Arbery approached McMichael and a physical altercation ensued, resulting in McMichael fatally shooting Arbery. Bryan recorded this confrontation and Arbery's murder on his cell phone.

Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black American woman, was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment on March 13, 2020, when at least seven police officers forced entry into the apartment as part of an investigation into drug dealing operations. Three Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers—Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove—were involved in the shooting. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was inside the apartment with her when the plainclothes officers knocked on the door and then forced entry. The officers said that they announced themselves as police before forcing entry, but Walker said he did not hear any announcement, thought the officers were intruders, and fired a warning shot at them. The shot hit Mattingly in the leg, and the officers fired 32 shots in return. Walker was unhurt but Taylor, who was behind Walker, was hit by six bullets and died. During the incident, Hankison moved to the side of the apartment and shot 10 bullets through a covered window and glass door. According to police, Taylor's home was never searched.

This is a list of protests brought on by the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in Kentucky, United States. In 2020, there were protests throughout Kentucky in reaction to the shooting of Breonna Taylor and murder of George Floyd by police, as well as the shooting of David McAtee by the Kentucky Army National Guard. The demonstrations happened regularly in the largest cities in Kentucky, including Louisville and Lexington. Many of the smaller cities had protests on at least one day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breonna Taylor protests</span> 2020–22 protests after the police shooting of Breonna Taylor

The Breonna Taylor protests were a series of police brutality protests surrounding the killing of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was a 26-year-old African-American woman who was fatally shot by plainclothes officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department on March 13, 2020. Police were initially given "no-knock" search warrant, but orders were changed to "knock and announce" before the raid. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was inside the apartment with her during the raid, said he thought the officers were intruders. He fired one shot, hitting officer Mattingly in the leg, and the officers fired 32 shots in return, killing Taylor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Louisville mayoral election</span> 6th election of Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky

The 2022 Louisville mayoral election was the sixth quadrennial Louisville Metro mayoral election, held on November 8, 2022. Incumbent Democratic mayor Greg Fischer is term-limited and cannot seek reelection to a fourth term in office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Ray Cable</span> American serial killer

James Ray Cable was an American serial killer from Kentucky. In 2004, while he was imprisoned for kidnapping, he was linked via DNA to the murders of three women in the 1980s. He was also responsible for the 1977 murder of a man and is also thought to be responsible for several other murders. He died while awaiting trial for the murders in 2013.

Craig Greenberg is an American businessman, lawyer, and politician serving as the third mayor of Louisville Metro. During his mayoral campaign, he was the subject of what has been termed an assassination attempt at his campaign headquarters, but emerged unscathed.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Zraick, Karen; Stevens, Matt (October 25, 2018). "Kroger Shooting Suspect Tried to Enter Black Church Before Killing 2 in Kentucky, Police Say" . The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 10, 2022. Retrieved August 9, 2023.
  2. 1 2 Chokshi, Niraj (November 15, 2018). "Kroger Shooting Suspect Is Charged With Hate Crimes in Killings of 2 Black People" . The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 18, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  3. ↑ DiGiacomo, Janet. "Kroger shooting leaves 2 people dead in Kentucky", CNN, October 26, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
  4. ↑ Kenney, Tanasia (November 3, 2018). "Man Who Confronted Suspect In Kroger Shooting Details Harrowing Incident, Says He Was Trying to Protect 'Me and My Wife'". Atlanta Black Star. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  5. ↑ Bailey, Phillip (October 31, 2018). "'Whites don't shoot whites': What one man says Kroger shooter told him". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  6. 1 2 Novelly, Thomas. "Police chief calls Kroger shooting in Louisville a hate crime", USA Today , from Louisville Courier Journal , October 29, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
  7. ↑ Novelly, Thomas. Kroger shooting: FBI questions Gregory Bush's Twitter friend, Louisville Courier-Journal, November 1, 2018, Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  8. ↑ Glowicki, Mathew (October 31, 2018). "Kroger shooting suspect Gregory Bush indicted on murder charges". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  9. ↑ Ross, Allison (October 31, 2018). "Feds confirm they're investigating the Kroger shooting as hate crime". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  10. ↑ Kobin, Billy (July 24, 2019). "Kroger shooting suspect is now competent to stand trial, prosecutors say". Louisville Courier Journal.
  11. ↑ "Man charged in Louisville Kroger shooting returning to mental facility". wkyt.com. Associated Press. November 1, 2019. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  12. ↑ Wise, John P. (December 15, 2020). "Kroger shooter Gregory Bush sentenced to life in prison without parole". WAVE3 News. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  13. ↑ Wolfson, Andrew (December 15, 2020). "Gregory Bush to spend life in prison for shooting two Black shoppers at Kroger store". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  14. ↑ Offender Information - Kentucky Online Offender Lookup
  15. ↑ Novelly, Thomas (October 31, 2018). "After Kroger shooting, state 'needs stricter punishments' for hate crimes, lawmakers say". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  16. ↑ Journal, Thomas Novelly (October 31, 2018). "Mitch McConnell backs death penalty in Louisville Kroger shooting". Kentucky New Era. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  17. ↑ O'Neil, Erin (October 28, 2018). "Activists ask for hate crime charge in Kroger shooting". WAVE3 News. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  18. ↑ Gray, Melissa; Sanchez, Ray (October 28, 2018). "72 hours in America: Three hate-filled crimes. Three hate-filled suspects". CNN. Retrieved August 9, 2023.
  19. ↑ "Mayor calls for Louisville to hold 'Moment of Unity' on Wednesday". WDRB. October 30, 2018. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.