Several people remain hospitalized, as police investigate the shooting at the bank that left five people dead
An officer in critical condition at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, has been killed since his shooting spree opened fire on a fellow employee
Several people are still hospitalized, including a police officer in critical condition, as Louisville investigators work to piece together the events that led to yesterday’s downtown bank shooting that left five people dead.
A man opened fire on his coworkers at the bank when they gathered for a meeting before it opened its doors. The bank’s manager said she witnessed the shooting virtually as the meeting was being streamed (officials said the gunman separately streamed the attack online).
The incident happened very quickly as the shooting played out on her computer screen, and she watched in horror.
Police did not say if Deana Eckert was one of the three people in critical condition earlier in the day.
The four other victims, who died Monday morning, were identified by police as Joshua Barrick, 40; Juliana Farmer, 45; Tommy Elliott, 63; and James Tutt, 64.
Sturgeon, whose LinkedIn profile showed he had interned at the bank for three summers and been employed there full-time for close to two years, had been notified that he was going to be fired from his job at the bank, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.
It is unclear when the message in the note left for his parents was found, but the source said the note indicated a planned shooting at his workplace.
Police officers killed the shooter who was still firing at them when they arrived. One officer, who was shot in the head, was injured during the gunfire.
As long as America’s incessant cycle of mass shootings goes on – and there’s no sign it’s ending – police will be called to respond. The political system is deadlocked on the issue. Calls for more investment in mental health after such killings never seem to materialize on a scale that might stop the tragedies. And many gun enthusiasts seem to prioritize their right to bear arms over the life and liberty of people gunned down by high-powered firearms.
A Moment of Grief for the Louisville Gun Shooting Victims and Old National Bank CEO, Jim Ryan, and his Co-President, Andy Beshear
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has ordered flags across the state to fly at half-staff until Friday evening in honor of the victims, but some Democratic lawmakers are concerned that the expressions of grief will come and go without meaningful gun violence solutions.
“This isn’t about partisan politics. Life and death are the subject of this story. This is about saving lives. You may think that this won’t happen to you, to your friends or to your loved ones. I used to think that. The sad truth is that now no one in our city, no one in our state, no one in our country has that luxury anymore,” he continued.
“Too many Americans are paying for the price of inaction with their lives. When will Republicans in Congress act to protect our communities?,” the president said in a tweet.
Members of the Old National Bank executive team, including CEO Jim Ryan, were in Louisville Monday on the heels of the shooting, the company said on Facebook.
Ryan said in a statement that they were keeping everyone affected by the tragedy in their thoughts and prayers.
One bank employee frantically called her husband as she sheltered inside a locked vault, the husband, Caleb Goodlett told CNN affiiliate WLKY. He claimed that police were aware of the shooting by the time he called.
Sam Wilt: A beloved community leader in Louisville and the wake of the Kentucky Bank shooting, CNN learns he was a great example of an exceptional officer
Nickolas Wilt, a 26-year-old rookie officer, ran toward the gunfire and was shot in the head, interim Louisville Metro Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said. He finished his police academy just a few days before the shooting.
The gun used in the shooting was an rifle, according to a federal law enforcement source. The semi-automatic rifle is the most popular sporting rifle in the US, and 30% of gun owners reported having owned an AR-15 or similar-style rifle, according to the 2021 National Firearms Survey. The AR-15 and its offshoots have been the weapon of choice in many of the most horrific mass shootings in recent memory, including the Covenant school shooting in Nashville just two weeks ago.
The bank sits on the fringe of Louisville’s developing downtown business district, state Sen. Gerald Neal, who represents the district where the shooting happened, told CNN. He said that he wouldn’t expect anything to happen at the location.
Neal thinks that the gun control debate in Kentucky will continue despite the city being shocked by the shooting.
Several state and local leaders remembered one of the shooting victims, bank senior vice president Tommy Elliot, as a beloved community leader.
Tommy was an excellent man. He put good people in positions to do great things. He embraced me when I was very young and interested in politics,” state senator Yates told CNN. He was lifting people up and making them stronger.
Elliot was also close friends with Gov. Beshear and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, who said he spent Monday morning at the hospital with Elliot’s wife.
A Louisville officer killed in the head by a man who opened fire on a downtown bank on Monday, Jan. 22, 2009: A tweet from an officer known as Ben Beshear
“It is painful, painful for all of the families I know,” he said of the latest shooting, adding: “It just hits home in a unique way when you know one of the victims so well.”
Beshear said he was an incredible friend and that the others who had been killed would be missed and mourned by their communities.
A Louisville police officer who was sworn in less than two weeks ago is in critical condition after stopping a gunman who opened fire at a downtown bank on Monday.
It was 8:38 a.m. local time on the Monday after Easter, and downtown Louisville was bustling with morning commuters. According to interim police chief, the officer and his field training officer responded to the scene within three minutes.
But Wilt was struck in the head in the process. He underwent brain surgery and is in critical condition, but was among the nine people hospitalized after the shooting.
Prior to joining the police force, Wilt worked as an emergency medical technician, an emergency dispatcher and as a local firefighter. He is employed by Baptist Health on an as-needed basis.
A statement on his LinkedIn page offers insight into his service mindset: “The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit,” he wrote in the spot where a career biography would normally go.
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Three victims who were hospitalized are in stable condition as of Tuesday morning and one is in fair condition. Another four have been discharged. The hospital used more than 170 units of blood to treat the victims, prompting a representative from the Red Cross to call for more donations during a press conference on Tuesday.
Gwinn-Villaroel said there could’ve been more victims, had Wilt and the officer not “taken it upon themselves to not wait to assess everything but just went in to assess the threat so that more lives would not be lost.”
Brandon Tsay, a software engineer, wrestled the shooter to the ground at a dance hall in Monterey Park after eleven people had been killed nearby.
Like the other patients who sustained gunshot wounds, he has a long road of recovery ahead, said Dr. Jason Smith, University of Louisville Health Chief Medical Officer.
The gunman who killed five people and injured eight others during a shooting in downtown Louisville on Monday bought the AR-15 style rifle used in the attack legally, authorities said Tuesday.
Connor Sturgeon purchased the weapon from a Louisville dealer on April 4 — six days before the attack — according to Louisville Metro Police Department Interim Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.
Crowell said emergency services received the first call about three minutes after the shooter opened fire, officers arrived on the scene about three minutes after that and police shot and killed Sturgeon three minutes later.
Several officials made a plea to state and federal legislators to do more to prevent gun violence at a news conference on Tuesday.
Do you see gun violence? “What’s happening?” Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., told reporters in Louisville, Kentucky
“I am a person of faith. I was raised by my parents in the church. We’ve raised our kids in the church. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky. said if you are a person of faith, we need your thoughts and prayers.
“But we need policies in place that will keep this from happening again, so that thoughts and prayers do not have to be offered to yet another community ripped apart by the savage violence coming from guns,” he added.
“We are weary. We are tired. We have had enough gun violence in Louisville. It is time to act and we have had enough gun violence. And so as mayor, I know I will be working with elected officials … with clergy with anyone who wants to be a part of the solution to take whatever actions we can to encourage our state legislatures to take action to give us more tools to end gun violence,” he said.
He said that the operating room schedule barely had to be adjusted to do this. “That’s how frequent we are having to deal with gun violence in our community.”
Smith has been to the hospital for 15 years and has seen many gun violence victims, and he thinks it can be a drain on the medics who have to inform families of their dead loved ones.
“It just breaks your heart. “When you hear someone screaming’mommy’ or ‘daddy’, it’s really hard to be able to do it.” he said.
“I can’t do nothing, but we can do something”: Greenberg’s “shot-in-the-middle” to a Detroit mayor
“I don’t know what the answers are. But to everyone who helps make policy — at state, city, federal — I would simply ask you to do something. Because doing nothing, which is what we’ve been doing, is not working.”
Greenberg was the target of a shooting at his campaign headquarters last year. CNN reported that a round hit his clothing in the shooting, but he wasn’t injured.
We have to act now. We need short-term action to end this gun violence epidemic now so fewer people die on our streets, and in our banks, and in our schools and in our churches. And for that, we need help. We need help from our friends in Frankfurt and help from our friends in Washington, DC,” the mayor added.
Greenberg told Wolf that he had spoken to several local lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and was going to meet with them to discuss what we can do together.
Greenberg said during Tuesday’s news conference no one has the “luxury” of thinking they won’t have a connection to gun violence at some point in their life.
A Kentucky grand jury indicted the man accused of shooting at Greenberg on charges of attempted murder and first-degree wanton endangerment.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/politics/craig-greenberg-louisville-kentucky-mayor-shooting/index.html
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“I was fortunate that one of my brave teammates slammed the door shut. They were able to throw some desks on top of the door and the suspect fled. So, we are very blessed to be here today. All of us on the team are,” he said at the time on “New Day.”
Greenberg, an entrepreneur and community leader, ran on a platform that prioritized public safety, justice, affordable housing, strengthening education, jobs and making Louisville “greener.”
“We must improve public safety, to make it a safer city for all of our residents, for everyone that’s visiting here and there’s so much that we can and must do,” Greenberg told Spectrum News 1 before his November victory.
A trained lawyer, Greenberg is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Harvard Law School, according to his bio. He is a co-owner of Ohio Valley Wrestling, and he is also the founder and president of 21c Museum Hotels.
The police officers that have rushed into danger in recent weeks are not what Americans are used to seeing on TV. The police bodycam footage that’s often gained the most attention has shown just the opposite – with scenes of police brutality. National outrage was triggered by the releasing of footage from the arrest of a man who died in the hospital after being beaten by Memphis police officers.
The video of a street battle that is more like a war zone than a US city offers an antidote to national shrugs that often follow gun massacres.
Acting quickly is critical. The shooter broke a window in the bank where four victims already lay dead and one mortally wounded, because he made a fatal error. This creates a sightline for Galloway. He shoots and says, “I think he’s down!” to the officer. He referred to his training student, who had only been on patrol for four times when he was shot. He is in the hospital in a critical condition.
“What you saw in that video was absolutely amazing. It is sad, but it is incredible, said the deputy Louisville police chief when he released the video.
It is a sad and brutal aspect of law enforcement in America. Officer Wilt tries to do his job and he is struck down in the course of trying to protect others,” former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.
There is increasing frustration among some police leaders about the risks their officers face while national and state leaders resist changes to gun laws.
Then-Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams told the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2022, “We are out outgunned, we’re outmanned, we’re out-staffed, we do need responsible gun legislation.”
And Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told CNN why his officers have to continue to train for active shooter situations. We don’t want it to happen. He said that the statistics tell him it will happen. “And this is where we do challenge our leaders at a national level, to do more about guns, to do more about mental health so that we don’t have to do this over and over.”
The split screen is a reminder that while partisan politics often paints a simple impression of the state of policing in America, heroism and cruelty co-exist and reality is nuanced.
Charles Ramsey, former police chief in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, said on CNN that authorities would like to show what happened from camera footage as quickly as possible. He thinks that things have changed as a result of policing.
But the footage formed a heroic counterpoint to the depraved behavior of the shooter in Louisville, who live streamed on social media his rampage inside the bank.
