Tragedy struck a downtown bank in Louisville on Monday morning when a former employee opened fire, killing five people, including a close friend of the governor.
The suspect, Connor Sturgeon, 25, used a rifle and live-streamed the attack on Instagram, according to officials. Two police officers were among the nine people injured in the shooting, which happened at Old National Bank. Meta, the parent company of Instagram, quickly took down the livestream. Sturgeon was killed by police, who arrived on the scene within three minutes of the reports of shots fired.
The shooting is the 15th mass shooting of 2023 in which four or more victims were killed, making it the largest total in the first 100 days of a year since 2009. The majority of shootings were family-related incidents. There have been over 140 mass shootings with four or more injured victims, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The deceased victims were identified as bank employees Jim Tutt Jr., 64, Tommy Elliott, 63, Juliana Farmer, 45, and Josh Barrick, 40. Governor Andy Beshear mourned their loss and referred to them as “irreplaceable, amazing individuals that a terrible act of violence tore from all of us”. Beshear was emotional during the news conference and fought back tears.
The shooting happened in a building not far from the Louisville Slugger Field and Waterfront Park. Beshear said he knows the building and its staff well, as his AG campaign was based there, and it is his bank. A family assistance center for victims and family members has been set up at the Kentucky International Convention Center.
Sturgeon’s motive is under investigation, and the shooting is being investigated by local, state, and federal authorities. “This will be a long, complex investigation involving local, state and our federal partners,” said Interim Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.
The tragedy is another reminder of the ongoing gun violence in the United States. President Joe Biden expressed his condolences and called for action to protect communities from senseless acts of gun violence.
In a separate incident later that day, a man was killed, and a woman was injured in an unrelated shooting outside a community college, just blocks away from the bank. Police are investigating the incident.
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