Alleged Louisville Shooter Was Bank Employee, Star High School Athlete

Topline

Authorities in Louisville, Kentucky, say they are still working to piece together details of Monday morning’s mass shooting that left five victims dead at a downtown bank, but a picture has started to emerge of the shooter—a 25-year-old bank employee.

A Louisville Metro Police officer walks outside of the home of the suspected shooter in the Camp … [+] Taylor neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

Key Facts

Police identified the shooter as Connor Sturgeon, who they say live-streamed his killing of four Old National Bank employees: 64-year-old market executive Jim Tutt, 63-year-old senior vice president Tommy Elliott, 57-year-old commercial banking agent Juliana Farmer and 40-year-old senior vice president of commercial real estate Josh Barrick.

A fifth person—57-year-old Deana Eckert—died Monday evening, according to police, who didn’t specify whether Eckert worked at the bank along with the other deceased victims.

Sturgeon used a rifle in the attack and died during a shootout with police shortly after 8:30 a.m., Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said Monday, injuring three officers—including one who was shot in the head and remained in critical condition as of Monday afternoon.

Sturgeon worked at Old National Bank—a regional bank headquartered in Indiana—but was recently told he was going to be fired, according to CNN, citing a source with knowledge of the investigation.

He left a note before the attack addressed to his parents and a friend telling them he was going to shoot up the bank, CNN reported.

Multiple reports—citing Sturgeon’s now-removed LinkedIn profile—said he graduated from the University of Alabama in 2020 after majoring in finance and economics, and started at Old National Bank as an intern in 2018, where he most recently worked as a syndications associate and portfolio banker.

People who knew Sturgeon told news outlets they did not see any red flags in his behavior, with former classmates describing him as a star athlete who was popular at Floyd Central High School in Floyds Knobs, Indiana.

A former friend told the Daily Beast that Sturgeon used to wear a helmet during basketball games because of a series of concussions, while he sat out most of his eighth-grade football season due to concussions.

The outlet also reported Sturgeon appeared to operate two since-removed Twitter accounts where he posted about sports, along with support for the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 and criticism of then-President Donald Trump.

An essay in Sturgeon’s name on his “Personal Code of Ethics” was uploaded to CourseHero in 2018, where he outlined self-esteem issues that he said gave him “a somewhat negative self-image,” though he indicated it was improving.

What We Don’t Know

Authorities have not identified a motive.

Big Number

9. That’s how many people were injured in the shooting, including the wounded police officers. Three are in critical condition, three are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries and three were released Monday afternoon, Gwinn-Villaroel said in a press conference.

Tangent

At least one of the shooting victims, Elliott, was extremely well-connected in Kentucky business and political circles, with Gov. Andy Beshear (D) saying he spoke to him on a daily basis and was one of his “closest friends”—comments echoed by Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg (D).

Key Background

Monday’s shooting once again renewed calls from gun control activists and top Democratic officials, like President Joe Biden, for Congress to enact tougher gun laws—but Republicans in the GOP-controlled House have repeatedly rebuffed demands for action. The shooting was the 146th mass shooting in the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines mass shootings as events where four or more people are killed or injured. This is by far the earliest in the year such a high number of mass shootings have been reported. The issue of mass shootings has become a top point of political tension across the country, including in Kentucky’s southern neighbor—Tennessee—where two Democratic lawmakers were recently expelled from the state legislature for demonstrating at a gun control protest at the state capitol. The Nashville Metropolitan Council unanimously voted Monday to send one of those lawmakers, Rep. Justin Jones, back to the legislature while he awaits a special election to win back his seat for the remainder of his scheduled term. The Tennessee demonstrations came after a gunman killed three 9-year-olds and three school employees at a Christian school in Nashville late last month.