When Vickie Lee Jones’ family members heard Wednesday that she had been shot dead at a Kroger in Jeffersontown, they cried, said her nephew, Kevin Gunn.

But Thursday, their tears turned to anger, he said.

“Something needs to be done to stop putting guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them,” Gunn, told reporters at a news conference outside of City Hall. “Something is wrong with the system. This shouldn’t have happened.”

In an interview, he said it was particularly hard to cope with his aunt’s death because “she was one of the sweetest people you could know -- and I’m not just saying that as her nephew. She had a warm and giving heart.”

A vigil for Jones will be held 2 p.m. Saturday at the Church of the Living God, Temple #45, 2401 W. Madison Street. Anyone attending is asked to wear pink and white.

Jones' visitation and funeral will be next weekend at the church. Her visitation is set for 5-9 p.m. Friday, and funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday.

Jones, 67, and another African-American, Maurice Stallard, 69, were killed at the store and Gregory Bush, who is white, was arrested and charged with murder.

The latest:Feds confirm they're investigating the Kroger shooting as hate crime

Citing news reports that Bush told a man outside the store, who was armed, that “whites don’t kill whites,” Gunn said the national climate of discord may have figured in the shooting.

“I don’t want to point fingers at the president, but a lot of people have signed on to the mentality … that it is OK to be hateful in public,” Gunn said.

If race figured in the crime, Gunn said he wants to know why. “The color of our skin may be different but inside we are all the same," he said.

Jones lived less than a mile from the Kroger store and had moved to Jeffersontown to be safe, he said. “This is not something you expect in this part of town.”

Jones grew up on West 39th Street, graduated from Shawnee High School and attended Western Kentucky University for two years, where she met her future husband, George Jones, who died of cancer in 2010.

She left behind two sons, Sean and Marcus, and multiple grandchildren, Gunn said.

She retired from the VA Hospital, where she worked as an office administrator.

Gunn said she loved to travel and was a faithful member of the Church of the Living God, 2401 W. Madison Street.

She lived in an apartment for senior citizens in the 2800 block of Biggin Hill Court, near the intersection of South Hurstbourne Parkway and Stony Brook Drive.

Her death unleashed anger and sadness on Facebook.

Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, who knew Jones, broke into tears when she found out about her death from a reporter.

Gunn said the family had just buried Jones’ brother, but he died after a long illness and that her death was harder to take because it was so senseless.

More:Father of Mayor Fischer's equity chief killed in Kroger shooting

“She was doing a routine activity” when “somebody at random decided do something so heinous. It is such a shock.”

Gunn said that his aunt had recently surprised him when she showed up at a ceremony where he received a master’s degree in public administration from Indiana Wesleyan University.

“It was a nice moment,” he said. “Life is not going to be the same.”