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.
[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.
[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.
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.
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] 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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.