Louisville police are investigating after at least five people were shot dead at a bank in the city’s downtown core Monday morning.
At least eight others, including two police officers, were injured, police said. The suspected lone shooter was also killed, investigators added.
Police said calls were received at 8:30 a.m. EDT of an “active aggressor” at the Old National Bank on East Main Street, not far from the Louisville Slugger Field and Waterfront Park. Officers were on scene within minutes, the force said on Twitter.
At 9:27 a.m., police said in a tweet it was confirming reports of an “active aggressor” and “multiple casualties.” The suspected shooter was later “neutralized,” police said in a 10:16 a.m. tweet.
Louisville Metro Police Department Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey told reporters that officers who arrived on the scene “encountered active gunshots still being fired inside the location at that time.”
Police exchanged gunfire with the shooter, who died after being shot. However, it was unclear whether the death was from police gunfire or a self-inflicted wound.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said he lost one of his closest friends in the shooting, who police confirmed was 63-year-old Thomas Elliott.
“Tommy Elliott helped me build my law career, helped me become governor, gave me advice on being a good dad,” said Beshear, his voice shaking with emotion. “He’s one of the people I talked to most in the world, and very rarely were we talking about my job. He was an incredible friend.”
Also killed in the shooting were Josh Barrick, aged 40; Jim Tutt, 64; and Juliana Farmer, aged 45, police said. A fifth victim, identified as 57-year-old Deana Eckert, passed away in hospital late Monday night, police confirmed.
“These are irreplaceable, amazing individuals that a terrible act of violence tore from all of us,” the governor said at Monday’s press conference.
The shooter, identified by police as Connor Sturgeon, was an employee of the Old National Bank. Police had initially said he was 23 years old, but later clarified his age as 25.
Sturgeon joined the downtown branch as a full-time employee last year after working as an intern for three summers from 2018 to 2022, according to a LinkedIn profile page. Police said Sturgeon was live-streaming during the shooting. He had no prior contact with police, according to officials.
Beshear spoke as the investigation in Louisville continued and police searched for a motive. Crime scene investigators could be seen marking and photographing numerous bullet holes in the windows near the bank’s front door.
As part of the investigation, police descended on the neighborhood where the suspect lived, about 8 kilometers south of the downtown shooting. The street was blocked as federal and local officers talked to residents. One home was cordoned off with caution tape.
At least eight other people were being treated for wounds, including two police officers. One of the officers, 26-year-old Nickolas Wilt, graduated from the police academy on March 31. He was in critical condition after being shot in the head and was undergoing surgery, the police chief said.
The police department said on Twitter that Wilt “ran towards the gunfire today to save lives.”
The FBI said its agents were also responding to the shooting. An investigation is ongoing.
Monday’s slaying was the 15th mass shooting in the U.S. this year, which is the most during the first 100 days of a calendar year since 2009, when 16 incidents had occurred by April 10, according to a mass killings database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
The pace in 2009 slowed later in the year, with 32 mass killings recorded that year.
Going back to 2006, the first year for which data has been compiled, the years with the most mass killings were 2019 and 2022, with 45 and 42 mass killings recorded during each calendar year.
Just a few hours later and blocks away, an unrelated shooting killed one man and wounded a woman outside a community college, police said.
— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters
Comments