A 25-year-old bank employee on Monday opened fire at his workplace in Louisville, Kentucky, killing five people and wounding at least eight others in a livestreamed attack before police shot and killed him.
After an initial death toll of four, Louisville authorities announced in the evening that a fifth victim, a 57-year-old woman, had died of her injuries.
Police identified the suspect in the latest US mass killing as a white man named Connor Sturgeon, saying he was an employee of Old National Bank, downtown in Kentucky’s largest city.
Photo: AP
After receiving reports of gunfire in the bank at 8:38am, police were on the scene within three minutes.
The suspect shot at officers, who returned fire and killed him, interim police chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel told an afternoon news conference.
“His weapon of choice was a rifle,” she said without specifying if it was an assault weapon.
Gwinn-Villaroel said that the shooter, whose age was at first reported as 23 but later updated by police to 25, had broadcast live footage of the attack on Instagram.
A spokesperson for Meta Platforms Inc, the social media app’s parent company, said that it was “in touch with law enforcement and quickly removed the livestream of this tragic incident this morning.”
There was no immediate word on the suspect’s motive, but CNN cited a law enforcement source as saying he had just been informed he was losing his job.
Gwinn-Villaroel said that three people were in critical condition, including a police officer who was shot in the head.
One of those victims later succumbed to her injuries, adding to another woman and three men killed in the attack — all aged between 40 and 64, the Louisville Police Department said.
One of the men killed, Tommy Elliot, 63, was a friend of the Louisville mayor and of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.
“Tommy Elliott helped me build my law career. Helped me become governor. Gave me advice on being a good dad,” Beshear told the news conference. “He was an incredible friend.”
This was the latest spasm in a gun crisis that has left more than 4,900 people dead of firearm-related violence so far this year, the Gun Violence Archive showed.
US President Joe Biden — who is pushing for lawmakers in Washington to break a years-long deadlock and take action against gun violence — voiced frustration after the latest “senseless” killings.
“Too many Americans are paying for the price of inaction with their lives,” Biden wrote on Twitter. “When will Republicans in Congress act to protect our communities?”
The White House later said that Biden had spoken by telephone with Beshear.
The incident triggered a massive police deployment outside the Old National Bank building.
CNN reported that some people had been able to take refuge in the bank vault and lock themselves in, contacting police from inside.
Fox affiliate WDRB cited a witness saying she heard multiple gunshots and breaking glass while in her car at an intersection near the site.
“Gunfire erupted, like, right over my head,” said the woman, who gave her name only as Debbie. “When I turned, I saw that one of the windows in the bank had been blown out,” she said.
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