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A federal grand jury on Thursday charged hate crimes against a white man who, according to authorities, killed two black grandparents in a Kroger supermarket in Kentucky last month.
"There is no room, no room, for hate-motivated violence in this community and no place in this Commonwealth," said Russell M. Coleman, US Attorney for Western District of Kentucky, at a press conference held Thursday afternoon.
The indictment to six charges against the suspect, Gregory Bush, 51, of Louisville, Kentucky, included two counts of murder or murder committed on the basis of race or color and a leader of attempted murder or slaughter based on race or color. The remaining charges related to firearms offenses. The grand jury of Louisville rendered the indictment in the middle of the afternoon.
"In terms of legalese, we have three federal hate crimes, three what you would call federal firearms offenses or" gun crimes, "said Coleman.
If he is convicted, Mr. Bush faces life imprisonment without parole. The authorities have not yet decided to pursue the death penalty.
Bush had already been indicted by a public prosecutor for two counts of murder and ten counts of indiscriminate harm and could face the death penalty for these counts of murder.
The shooting took place on October 24 in Jeffersontown, a suburb of Louisville, where Mr. Bush first tried to enter a predominantly black church, according to police.
Otherwise, he went to Kroger, where witnesses claimed that he had shot Maurice E. Stallard, 69, deadly. Mr. Bush then went to the parking lot, where he shot and killed 67-year-old Vickie Lee Jones. A passerby told police that during the attack, Bush said, "Whites do not kill whites."
Mr. Stallard was at Kroger with his 12-year-old grandson to purchase equipment for a school project, police said. He served in the air force and married his girlfriend in high school, said Charlotte, a longtime friend, Jesse Kinzer, at the New York Times last month.
According to her nephew Kevin Gunn, Ms. Jones had retired from a hospital under the Veterans Administration Administration and was looking after her sick mother.
Last month, the prosecutor in the case, Thomas B. Wine, told the Times that a hate crime was not a separate offense under Kentucky law, but that a judge could enforce etiquette during the determination process of the trouble.
As a result, many had called Bush to face charges of federal hate crime, including Greg Fischer, Mayor of Louisville.
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