What we know about the Louisville bank shooting
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Louisville Metro Police officer walks outside of the home of the suspected shooter in the Camp Taylor neighborhood in Louisville, Ky., Monday. Police say a 23-year-old armed with a rifle opened fire at his Louisville workplace, the Old National Bank in downtown Louisville, killing and wounding several, and was killed by police responding to the shooting.
NATOSHA VIA/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Workers replace damaged windows at Old National Bank the day after a mass shooting there in downtown Louisville, today. A man armed with a rifle fatally shot five colleagues on Monday at a bank where he worked, police said, and wounded eight others while livestreaming the rampage.
MICHAEL CLEVENGER/COURIER JOURNAL VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Multiple agencies arrive at a building after a shooting took place in Louisville, Ky., Monday.
A 25-year-old man shot and killed five colleagues Monday at the downtown bank in Louisville, Kentucky, where he worked, police said. Eight others were wounded, two of them critically. The gunman, who used a rifle and livestreamed the attack, was killed by police after exchanging fire with them.
The shooter was identified by police as Connor Sturgeon. He was a “syndications associate and portfolio banker” at Old National Bank, according to his LinkedIn page. Police did not give a motive.
Several national political figures, including President Joe Biden, issued statements Monday deploring the violence and urging action on gun legislation. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, said that the day ought to be focused on “friends and loved ones that are no longer with us.”
Here’s what we know.
What happened?
Police received reports of shots fired at Old National Bank at 8:38 a.m. Monday, said Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, interim chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department. “Officers were on the scene within three minutes,” she said. “The suspect shot at officers, we then returned fire and stopped that threat.”
Troy Haste, an account executive with Old National, was in a conference room Monday morning when the gunfire started, he told a local ABC affiliate. “We heard a click, and the lady next to me turned around and said, ‘What the hell?’” Haste said. “And he just started shooting. He had a long assault rifle, and the shots just started firing,” he said of the gunman.
At least two officers were shot during the exchange before the gunman was killed, officials said.
Officials and Louisville residents praised the quick response of the Louisville police, who faced serious criticism after the botched raid that killed Breonna Taylor in 2020. Just last month, the Justice Department released a 90-page report condemning the department over what it identified as a wide range of abuses and misconduct.
Who were the victims?
Police identified four of the victims as employees of Old National Bank: Joshua Barrick, 40; Thomas Elliott, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and James Tutt, 64. The fifth victim, Deana Eckert, 57, also worked there, according to a LinkedIn page; she initially survived the shooting but died Monday night, according to police.
Of the eight wounded, two were in critical condition as of Monday, three remained at the University of Louisville Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and three had been released, police said.
Among the critically wounded was Nickolas Wilt, 26, who graduated from the police academy on March 31. Wilt required brain surgery.
Elliott was a vice president of the bank, according to his LinkedIn profile, a well-known Democratic fundraiser and a close friend of Beshear.
“Tommy Elliott helped me build my law career, helped me become governor, gave me advice on being a good dad,” Beshear said at a news conference. “He’s one of the people I talk to most in the world, and very rarely were we talking about my job. He was an incredible friend.”
Beshear ordered flags throughout the state to fly at half-staff until Friday evening to honor the victims.
Who was the shooter?
Sturgeon had worked at Old National, a regional bank, full-time for nearly two years after interning there over previous summers.
Gwinn-Villaroel said she was not aware of any prior engagement that the gunman might have had with police. She did not give any further details about his livestreaming of the mass shooting, other than to say that it was “tragic to know that incident was out there being captured.”
What do we know about the bank?
The branch of Old National Bank where the shooting happened shares a block with the Louisville Ballet and is across the street from Louisville Slugger Field, a stadium where the minor league Louisville Bats play. The surrounding downtown area, not far from the Ohio River, is filled with condos and office towers.
Beshear had run his 2015 campaign for state attorney general from the bank building, he said, so he knew “virtually everyone” inside. “That’s my bank,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
