The parents of a gunman who shot and killed five people at a Louisville bank earlier this month spoke out about the incident in a new interview, calling for gun reform.
“We are so sorry. We are heartbroken,” Lisa Sturgeon, the mother of Connor Sturgeon, told Savannah Guthrie in a interview that aired Thursday morning. “We wish we could undo it, but we know we can’t.”
Connor Sturgeon, a 25-year-old employee at Old National Bank in Louisville Ky., opened fire in a work meeting and killed four people at the scene and injured an additional eight people. Sturgeon died after exchanging gun fire with law enforcement that day, and a fifth victim died from their injuries the following day as a result of the shooting.
Police said Sturgeon had legally purchased a rifle a week before the shooting, a move his parents said should not have been allowed. Sturgeon’s parents said their son’s mental condition, which they said he was seeing professionals for, should have prevented him from purchasing a gun.
“We know that Connor was seeing two mental health professionals and that he was able to walk in,” Todd Sturgeon, his father, said of his son purchasing a rifle.
“How many mass shootings have there been this calendar year already? It has been happening to other people like us, and we’re continuing to let it happen, and we have to fix that,” Sturgeon’s mother added.
Sturgeon’s mother called police on the day of the shooting, warning them that her son was on his way to the bank and might have a gun. Recordings of the 911 calls were released by police earlier this month, in which she could be heard saying her son had “never hurt anyone.”