A rifle-toting employee opened fire at a bank in Louisville, Ky., early Monday, killing four people and wounding nine others, police said.
The morning massacre at the Old National Bank was carried out by a lone gunman, identified as 23-year-old Connor Sturgeon, who died after a shootout with responding officers, the Louisville Metro Police Department said.
Police identified Joshua Barrick, 40, Thomas Elliot, 63, Juliana Farmer, 45, and James Tutt, 64, as the victims killed in the rampage. Among those wounded was an officer, Nickolas Wilt, who was in critical condition after being shot in the head, Interim Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said at an afternoon press conference.
Wilt, 26, was new to the department and had graduated from the police academy on March 31.
“This was an evil act of targeted violence,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said at the news conference.
Nine victims, including Wilt, were treated at the UofL Hospital, according to officials. Two others were also in critical condition, while three victims have been released and three remain hospitalized in non-critical condition.
Police say they were alerted to the shooting on the 300 block of E. Main St. at 8:38 a.m., and that officers arrived at the scene within three minutes while the suspect was still firing.
“The suspect shot at officers. We then returned fire and stopped that threat,” Gwinn-Villaroel said.
One officer who exchanged gunfire with the suspect was grazed on the left side, while another suffered minor injuries to the elbow, Gwinn-Villaroel said.
“This is a tragic event, but it was the heroic response of officers that made sure that no more people were more seriously injured than what happened,” Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said at a morning news conference.
Police said Monday morning there was no longer any threat to the public but urged people to stay away from the scene.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said two close friends died in the shooting and that another was hospitalized.
“When we talk about praying, I hope people will, for those that we are hoping can make it through the surgeries that they’re going through,” said Beshear, a Democrat. “We’ve got to wrap our arms around these families, and to everybody who needs it, don’t be afraid to get some help. Our bodies and our minds are not meant to go through these types of tragedies.”
Old National Bank called the shooting “tragic” and said CEO Jim Ryan was among the company executives who visited the scene Monday.
Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, tweeted he and his wife are “praying for everyone involved in the deadly shooting in downtown Louisville this morning. Our hearts break for the families of those lost.”
Louisville police responded later in the morning to a shooting at the Jefferson Community and Technical College’s downtown campus. One person died and another was wounded in what the city’s mayor says appears to be an “unrelated” incident. The suspects fled the scene before officers arrived, police said.
Monday’s violence occurred two weeks after a shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville killed six people, including three 9-year-old children. Police fatally shot that assailant, identified as a formerCovenant School student, 28-year-old Audrey Hale. Nashville is about 175 miles south of Louisville.