(CNN) —At least five people were killed and eight others injured in a shooting at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky on Monday, police said.
The victims, aged between 40 and 64, have been identified as Joshua Barrick, Juliana Farmer, Tommy Elliott, James Tutt and Deana Eckert, according to authorities.
A bank employee, identified by police as 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, opened fire at his workplace and livestreamed the attack on Instagram, according to investigators. The video was later removed. The attacker was killed by police after an exchange of gunfire.
Two people hug in front of the building where a mass shooting took place in Louisville on Monday. Credit: Michael Clevenger/Courier Journal/AP
Filming timeline
The mass shooting began just after 8:30 a.m. at the Old National Bank on East Main Street, police said, about 30 minutes before the site opened to the public. It happened during a morning staff meeting, which some attended in person and others virtually, Rebecca Buchheit-Sims, a bank executive, told CNN. From her computer, she witnessed how her colleagues were shot.
A man speaking to local broadcaster WLKY said he received a “traumatic” call at 8:30am from his wife, who told him an attacker was active and that she was being locked in a vault at the Old National Bank may be.
The man, Caleb Goodlett, called 911, but officers were already aware of it. The man said his wife was fine.
Officers arrived at the bank within three minutes of the call and found the gunman was still firing, Louisville Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said. Officers shot with the gunman, killing him, Gwinn-Villaroel said.
Buchheit-Sims said the shooting developed very quickly.
“Shortly after the start of the meeting, the gunman in the conference room started shooting,” Buchheit-Sims said. “I’ve seen people murdered. I don’t know how else to put it.”
He said that Sturgeon, with whom he did not work closely, had a “gloomy personality. His temper is quite calm. I’ve never seen him angry or upset in public. He was quite laid back.”
He added that he was not aware of any previous complaints or threats from Sturgeon. He was remembered as someone who was “extremely intelligent”.
Police step on broken glass at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, Monday after a mass shooting. Photo credit: WDRB
Mayor Craig Greenberg thanked the “brave and heroic” first responders for their service. “Without a doubt, their actions saved lives,” he said.
In the hours after the shooting, a heavy police presence blocked much of the downtown street. Broken glass was scattered at the entrance to the Old National Bank, according to a video by CNN affiliate WDRB.
“He was one of my best friends”
Governor Beshear told a news conference that one of the shooting victims, Tommy Elliot, was “one of my best friends.” Elliott was a senior vice president at the bank, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“Tommy Elliott helped me build my law career, he helped me become governor, he gave me advice on how to be a good father,” Beshear said. “He’s one of the people I’ve talked to the most in the world and we’ve rarely spoken about my work. He was an incredible friend.”
Thomas Elliott Credit: Courtesy of Baptist Health Louisville
Police say a young officer was shot in the head
Officer Nickolas Wilt Credit: Louisville Police Department
Nickolas Wilt, a 26-year-old rookie officer, walked into the gunfight and was shot in the head, the police chief said. He is in critical condition.
Wilt had graduated from the police academy on March 31, just 10 days before the shooting.
According to a source, the attacker has been notified of his imminent release
The gunman killed was identified as Connor Sturgeon, an employee of the Old National Bank, according to Acting Chief of Police for the Louisville Metropolitan Police, Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.
Connor Sturgeon (From Connor Sturgeon/LinkedIn profile)
According to a police source familiar with the investigation, Sturgeon had worked at the bank for more than a year but was told he would be fired.
Sturgeon wrote his parents and a friend a note explaining that he would open fire on the bench, the source said. It’s unclear if that note was on paper or emailed, or if it was seen before or after the incident, the source said.
The shooting was live streamed on Instagram and has since been removed from the platform, although not immediately. According to the source, the police are in possession of the video.
Sturgeon wrote on his LinkedIn profile that he spent three consecutive summers at the bank between 2018 and 2020 before starting full-time in June 2021.
He graduated from the University of Alabama in December 2020 with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in finance, according to a university spokesman.
A former high school classmate who knew him and his family well said he never saw “any kind of red flag or sign that this could ever happen.”
“He was a really good kid who came from a really good family,” said the classmate, who asked not to be named and hadn’t spoken to Sturgeon in years. “I can’t tell you how ridiculous that is. I can not believe it.”
In a 2018 college essay posted on the CourseHero website, a user named Connor Sturgeon, identified as a University of Alabama student, wrote that he was struggling to fit into the school.
“My self-esteem has been an issue for me for a long time,” says the essay. “As a physical late bloomer in middle and high school, I had some trouble fitting in, which left me with a somewhat negative self-image that persists to this day. Making friends has never been easy, so I have more experience than most working alone.
The author wrote that in college I “started to mature socially and see improvements in that way” and that he hopes to “become more confident and start being a ‘better’ person”.
Police officers respond to an active shooting Monday at the Old National Bank building in Louisville, Kentucky. Credit: Luke Sharrett/Getty Images
Old National Bank has two locations, one in Evansville, Indiana and one in Chicago, and has more than 250 banking centers throughout the Midwest. The bank’s executive team will be headed to Louisville, the company said on Facebook.
“The safety of Old National Bank employees and everyone we serve in our banking centers is of the utmost importance,” said Jim Ryan, CEO of Old National. “While we await further details, we are expanding the relief effort for employees and keeping in our thoughts and prayers everyone affected by this tragedy.”
wave of gun violence
President Joe Biden condemned the recent mass shootings and called on Congressional Republicans to take action on gun laws.
“Jill and I are praying for the victims and victims of today’s shooting. Too many Americans are paying the price for their inaction with their lives. When will Republicans in Congress act to protect our communities?” Biden said in a tweet.
The shooting is just the latest example in the wave of mass gun violence, a uniquely American phenomenon. According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, which like CNN defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot dead, excluding the gunman, there have been at least 145 mass shootings in the United States this year.
The weapon used in the shooting was an AR-15 rifle, a federal security source told CNN. The AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle, is the most popular sporting rifle in the United States, with approximately 24.6 million people owning an AR-15 or similar rifle, according to the 2021 National Firearms Survey.
The AR-15 and its derivatives have been the weapon of choice in many of the most egregious mass shootings in recent memory, including those at the Sandy Hook School in Connecticut, a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, a party in San Bernardino, California, and a supermarket in Buffalo, NY. In Nashville, just two weeks ago, a gunman used an AR-15 and two other handguns in a mass shooting at a private Christian elementary school, killing three adults and three nine-year-olds.
The Louisville metropolitan area on the Kentucky-Indiana border has a population of approximately 630,000 people as of the 2020 census.