April 11, 2023 06:58 pm | Updated 06:58 pm IST – Louisville, Ky.
A Louisville bank employee armed with a rifle fired at his workplace on monday morningOfficials said five people, including a close friend of the Kentucky governor, died during a live streaming of the attack on Instagram.
Jacqueline Givin-Villaroel, chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department, said while gunfire was still going on inside the Old National Bank, police arrived and the attacker was killed in retaliation. The city’s mayor, Craig Greenberg, called the attack “an evil act of targeted violence”.
The shooting, the 15th mass murder in the country this year, was that of a former student.three children and three adults ill at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) to the south. The governor of that state and his wife’s friend were also killed in that shootout.
In Louisville, the chief identified the shooter as 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, who said he was livestreaming the attack.
“It’s sad to know that that incident was out there and was captured,” she said.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement that it “immediately removed the livestream of this tragic event this morning.”
Social media companies have implemented strict rules over the years to restrict violent and extremist content. They’ve set up systems to remove posts and streams that violate those restrictions, but shocking content like the Louisville shooting keeps slipping through the cracks, prompting lawmakers and other critics to press the technology industry for lax safeguards and moderation policies. inspires to
A person who fled the building during the shooting told WHAS-TV that the shooter opened fire with a long rifle in a conference room on the back of the first floor of the building.
“Whoever was next to me was shot – the blood from it is on me,” he told the news station, pointing to his shirt. He said he ran to the break room and locked the door.
Louisville Hospital spokeswoman Heather Fountain said in an email that nine people were treated, including two police officers. Police said Monday night that one of the injured was identified as 57-year-old Dina Eckert, who later died.
The police chief said one of the injured officers, 26-year-old Nicholas Wilt, graduated from the police academy on March 31. He was in critical condition after being shot in the head and undergoing surgery. At least three patients were discharged.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said he lost one of his closest friends in the shooting.
“Tommy Elliott helped me pursue my law career, helped me become governor, taught me how to be a good father,” Beshear said, his voice trembling with emotion. “He’s one of the people I talked to the most in the world, and very rarely were we talking about our work. He was an incredible friend.
Police said Josh Barrick, Jim Tutt and Julianna Farmer were among those killed in the shooting.
The governor said, “These are irreplaceable, wonderful individuals who have been torn apart by all of us by a terrible act of violence.”
Beshear spoke as the investigation was ongoing in Louisville and police looked for a motive. Crime scene investigators could be seen marking and painting several bullet holes in windows near the front door of the bank, not far from Waterfront Park and the minor league ballpark Louisville Slugger Field.
As part of the investigation, police descended on the neighborhood where the suspect lived, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of the downtown shooting. The road was blocked as federal and local officials spoke to residents. One house was cordoned off with caution tape. Kami Cooper, who lives in the neighborhood, said she didn’t remember ever meeting the suspect, but said it was a shocking realization to live on the same street as someone who could do such a thing.
“I’m almost speechless. You see it on the news but not at home,” Cooper said. “It’s unbelievable, it could be here, someone on my street.”
Deputy Police Chief Paul Humphrey said the police officers who responded had undoubtedly saved lives.
He said, ‘This is a sad incident. “But it was the heroic response of the officers that ensured no more seriously injured were injured than what happened.”
Hours later and blocks away, an unrelated shooting killed a man and injured a woman outside a community college, police said.
According to a database of mass killings, there have been 15 most incidents of mass shootings this year during the first 100 days of a calendar year since 2009, when 16 incidents occurred through April 10. The Associated Press And USA Today In partnership with Northeastern University. The pace slowed later in 2009, with 32 mass murders recorded that year.
Going back to 2006, the first year for which data is compiled, the years with the most mass killings were 2019 and 2022, with 45 and 42 mass killings recorded during the entire calendar year.
It was the second time Beshear had been personally touched by a mass tragedy since becoming governor.
In late 2021, one of the towns devastated by the tornado that tore through Kentucky was Dawson Springs, the hometown of Beshear’s father, former two-term Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. Andy Beshear frequently visited Dawson Springs as a boy and spoke emotionally about his father’s hometown.