Topline
Louisville police released body camera footage Tuesday showing the harrowing moments when a 25-year-old gunman opened fire on his coworkers at a bank, set up an ambush in the bank’s lobby and shot at people inside the building—an incident that led to five deaths and eight injuries.
Louisville police released surveillance and body camera footage of the deadly shooting at a bank … [+]
Key Facts
Surveillance footage released at a news conference Tuesday afternoon showed the suspect—identified by police as Connor Sturgeon—setting up an ambush in the lobby of Old National Bank and waiting for police to respond, after initially shooting some bank employees.
Sturgeon then shot at people who passed by in the lobby, police said Tuesday, though they did not confirm the names of those people.
Officers were immediately shot at when they arrived on scene, before returning fire at the suspect, who died during the shootout with police, according to Louisville Metro Police.
One officer, Nikolas Wilt, was shot outside the bank and is in critical condition—police then shot into the building and entered through the front door.
Four people died on scene, a fifth person died from gunshot wounds and four people remain hospitalized, including two who were taken to local hospitals in critical condition, according to police—four other injured people have since been discharged.
What We Dont Know
The suspect’s motive. Two concurrent investigations are ongoing into the shooting of seven bank employees and two police officers.
Key Background
Police responded to the Old National Bank around 8:30 a.m. Monday. Initial reports indicated there had been “multiple fatalities” in the attack—the 146th mass shooting in the U.S. so far this year—though police later confirmed four bank employees had died (Joshua Barrick, Thomas Elliot, Juliana Farmer and James Tutt). Police said Tuesday night a fifth person, Deana Eckert, died from gunshot wounds sustained in the shooting. Sturgeon legally purchased the AR-15 style rifle he used at the Old National Bank in downtown Louisville, Metro Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel confirmed in a press conference Tuesday, adding police have found other items from his home. Sturgeon, an employee at the bank who died at the scene after police arrived, had targeted specific coworkers. More information has since been revealed about the 25-year-old suspect, who police said live-streamed the attack on Instagram: Sturgeon graduated from the University of Alabama in 2020 with a degree in finance and economics and interned at Old National Bank in 2018 before coming on full-time. He had been told in recent months he would be fired, and left a note to his parents and a friend before the attack, writing his intention to open fire in the bank, CNN reported.
Tangent
In a press conference Monday night, Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) said he knew several of the bank employees, including one who died that he considered a “close friend.” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg (D) also said Monday one of the victims, Thomas Elliott, was a friend of his.
Further Reading
Alleged Louisville Shooter Legally Bought AR-15 Rifle Days Before Bank Attack, Police Say (Forbes)
Alleged Louisville Shooter Was Bank Employee, Star High School Athlete (Forbes)
Louisville Shooting: 5 Killed By Kentucky Bank Employee, Police Say (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/04/11/louisville-shooter-ambushed-police-from-bank-lobby-new-body-camera-footage-shows/