A mass shooting at a bank in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, has left five people dead and eight others injured. The incident occurred on Monday morning, when a 25-year-old bank employee identified as Connor Sturgeon opened fire during a morning employee meeting at Old National Bank. Sturgeon livestreamed the attack and was later killed by police after a shootout.
Four of the victims were identified as Joshua Barrick, 40; Juliana Farmer, 45; Tommy Elliott, 63; and James Tutt, 64, according to interim Louisville Metro Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel. Later that evening, police confirmed that a fifth victim, 57-year-old Deana Eckert, had also died. Nine others were injured, including a 26-year-old police officer who had graduated from the police academy just 10 days prior and was shot in the head.
The shooting occurred just after 8:30 a.m. as employees were gathering for a meeting, some in person and others virtually. Witnesses reported watching as their coworkers were gunned down. Police arrived at the scene within three minutes and engaged in a shootout with Sturgeon.
The gun used in the shooting was an AR-15-style rifle, according to a federal law enforcement source. The AR-15 is the most popular sporting rifle in the United States, and approximately 24.6 million people have owned an AR-15 or similar style rifle, according to the 2021 National Firearms Survey. The AR-15 has been the weapon of choice in many of the most heinous mass shootings in recent memory, including the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut, the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting, and the San Bernardino, California holiday party shooting.
Sturgeon had worked at the bank for over a year but had been notified that he was going to be terminated, according to a law enforcement source. He wrote a note to his parents and a friend indicating that he was going to open fire in the bank, though it is unclear whether the note was seen before or after the incident. The shooting was livestreamed on Instagram, and police are in possession of the video.
Sturgeon had interned at Old National Bank for three consecutive summers between 2018 and 2020 before joining 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. A former high school classmate who knew him and his family well said he never saw any “sort of red flag or signal that this could ever happen.”
The shooting in Louisville is the latest in a string of mass shootings in the United States, with at least 145 incidents occurring so far this year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.
