Funerals begin after 'racist' shooting in Kentucky

The first of two African American grocery shoppers shot dead by a white gunman in an attack described by police as racially motivated is being laid to rest.

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 is due to take place at a church in southeast Louisville while Jones will be laid to rest in the city on Saturday.

— AFP