Joshua Lott/Reuters
Four days after a gunman killed two black people in a Kroger grocery store in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, the town’s police chief labeled the shooting a “hate crime.” First Coast news reports Monday that Police Chief Sam Rogers told the congregation of First Baptist Church Sunday that racism is the “elephant in the room that some don’t want to acknowledge in this case.” The alleged shooter, Gregory Bush, reportedly attempted to break into First Baptist 10 to 15 minutes before last Wednesday’s shooting. “I won’t stand here and pretend that none of us know what could have happened if that evil man had gotten in the doors of this church,” Rogers added. He also noted that when confronted by a white man outside Kroger, Bush allegedly said “whites don’t kill whites.” Jeffersontown’s mayor, Bill Dieruf, echoed Rogers’ words. “I want you all to realize that yes, we have a race problem. Yes, it is real,” he said. “It’s up to us to solve the problem of racism.”