American kills four at Kentucky bank where he worked

April 10, 2023

A young American opened fire Monday in the bank that employed him, in Louisville, Kentucky’s main city, killing five people and injuring at least eight while broadcasting images of the attack live on the internet, before be shot by the police.

After an initial death toll of four, police in Louisville (central-eastern United States) announced in the evening that a fifth victim, a 57-year-old woman, had died of her injuries.

Shooter Connor Sturgeon, 25, was “live streaming” the attack, Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said at a press conference.

A spokeswoman for Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) said in a statement to AFP that the company was “in contact with law enforcement” and “quickly removed the live stream from this tragic event this morning”.

Authorities didn’t say the shooter’s motive, but CNN said Connor Sturgeon had just been told he would be fired and left a letter for his family saying he was going to open fire. at the bank’s premises.

Called shortly after 8:30 a.m. for shootings at the premises of the Old National Bank in the city center, the police arrived on the scene “in less than three minutes”, said Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.

Some survivors managed to find refuge in the vault, according to CNN.

“The suspect fired in the direction of the police, we opened fire in response and neutralized the danger,” added Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.

The officers “entered the building knowing they were risking their lives to save others,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said at the press conference.

Two officers were injured in the exchange of gunfire. One of them was seriously hit in the head and his condition is stable but still critical after his brain operation, said Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.

In all, nine people were admitted for treatment at a Louisville hospital.

And one of the injured people died in the evening, bringing the death toll to five.

The five people who died, three men and two women, were between 40 and 64 years old.

“It was a diabolical act of targeted violence,” said Mayor Greenberg, who said he lost a “very good friend” in the killings.

The victim, Tommy Elliott, was also one of the “closest friends” of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who paid tribute to him and spoke out against gun violence.

Such acts “tear the ties that bind us together”, said the Democratic governor, expressing his “pain” after the events of the day.

Joe Biden called Andy Beshear in the evening to discuss this “tragic” event, the White House said in a statement.

The president had earlier denounced “an absurd new episode of gun violence”.

“Once again our nation is in mourning,” he wrote on Twitter, calling relentlessly – and with little chance of success – for Congress to ban assault rifles.

The shooter was armed with such a rifle, type AR-15, often used during killings in the country, according to CNN, citing a federal police source.

The United States pays a very heavy price for the dissemination of firearms on its territory and the ease with which Americans have access to them.

On March 27, a person opened fire at a private elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, killing three 9-year-old children and three staff before being shot dead by police.

The country has more individual weapons than inhabitants: one in three adults owns at least one weapon and nearly one in two adults lives in a home where there is a weapon.

The consequence of this proliferation is the very high rate of death by firearm in the United States, without comparison with that of other developed countries.

According to the Gun Violence Archive database, around 49,000 people died from gunshot wounds in 2021, compared to 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record year. This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides.