Maurice Stallard and Vickie Lee Jones will be laid to rest in Louisville, Kentucky, after they were gunned down at a store in the suburb of Jeffersontown (LUKE SHARRETT)

Chicago (AFP) – The first of two African American grocery shoppers shot dead by a white gunman in an attack described by police as racially-motivated was to be laid to rest Tuesday.

Maurice Stallard, 69, and Vickie Lee Jones, 67, were gunned down on Wednesday last week at a suburban store in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Their deaths came days before an anti-Semitic massacre in Pittsburgh and as a spate of mail bombs sent to high-profile liberals was fueling a national reckoning over deepening political and racial divisions.

Stallard’s funeral was due to take place at a church in southeast Louisville while Jones will be laid to rest in the city on Saturday.

The suspected gunman, 51-year-old Gregory Bush, allegedly tried but failed to get into the predominantly black First Baptist Church in the suburb of Jeffersontown. 

He is then alleged to have headed to a nearby grocery store and opened fire multiple times on Stallard and Jones.

Jeffersontown police chief Sam Rogers told a Sunday service at the First Baptist Church the attack was “racist in nature.”

“I’m angered that we as a society continue to have issues of racism and violence,” he said. 

Bush — who allegedly told a bystander that “whites don’t kill whites” — is in custody, charged with two counts of murder and 10 counts of wanton endangerment. 

On Saturday a gunman killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in recent US history. 

Meanwhile a man accused of sending 15 mail bombs — none of which exploded — to prominent Democrats and critics of President Donald Trump appeared Monday in Miami federal court. 

There have been questions raised over the role the president’s heated rhetoric has played in fostering a toxic atmosphere that has encouraged the alleged attackers — a possibility the White House has rejected. 

The first two victims in the Pittsburgh attack also were laid to rest Tuesday. 

The funeral for Cecil and David Rosenthal — brothers aged 59 and 54 — was held at Rodef Shalom temple and attended by hundreds of mourners.

Disclaimer: This story has not been edited by Siliconeer and is published from a syndicated feed. Siliconeer does not assume any liability for the above story. Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Content copyright AFP.