WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th November, 2018) US authorities charged the man suspected of shooting and murdering two blacks at a Kroger grocery store in the state of Kentucky with three hate crimes, the Justice Department said in a press release.
"Gregory A. Bush, 51, was indicted today by a federal grand jury on hate crime and firearm charges arising out of the racially motivated murder of two African-American patrons at a Kroger grocery store, and the attempted murder of a third, on Oct. 24 in Jeffersontown, Kentucky," the release said on Thursday.
The indictment says Bush planned the crimes, he was fully aware of shooting several persons and he intentionally put other individuals on the scene at risk.
Bush is now facing life in prison or the death penalty, the release added. The Justice Department said it will determine at a later date whether to pursue the death penalty.
The incident took place on October 24 at a Kroger store where Bush, who is a white man, headed after not being able to get into a predominantly-black church. He shot an African-American woman inside the store and a black man outside the building.
On Wednesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a report that hate crimes in the United States surged 17 percent in 2017.
