Louisville, Kentucky shooting: Instagram video shows the massacre lasted about a minute before the gunman waited for police

SME
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A gunman took one minute to kill a Louisville bank employee before he stopped firing and waited for police. According to SME, footage from the incident was captured by an official in the city.

Officials said that Connor Sturgeon (25-year-old Old National Bank employee) livestreamed the grisly attack on Monday via Instagram.

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Investigators are currently combing the video to determine what caused the shooting, which left 5 people dead and many more injured.

It begins with the AR-15-style AR-15 weapon, which is clearly visible. The official then says that a bank worker said hello to the gunman.

“You need to get out of here,” the shooter is heard saying to the woman on the livestream, which was taken down by parent company Meta.

The gunman then tries to shoot her in the back but can’t because the safety is on and the weapon still needs to be loaded, the official said. According to the official, after the shooter has loaded the weapon correctly and taken the safety off, he shot the worker in his back. The condition of the worker is unknown.

According to the official, the shooter continues on his rampage shooting at employees as they try and outrun him. Officials claim that the shooter did not enter other floors within the bank.

The official stated that after the shooter has finished firing, he sat down in the lobby, which overlooks East Main Street, and appeared to be waiting for the police.

The gunman waits about a minute and a half before police arrive – a swift response praised by local leaders – and engage the shooter in a gun battle, the official said.

The gunman was shot and killed.

The massacre “happened very quickly” in the Old National Bank conference room, said bank manager Rebecca Buchheit-Sims, who attended the staff meeting virtually and watched in horror as gunfire exploded on her computer screen.

“I witnessed people being murdered,” she told SME. “I don’t know how else to say that.”

According to police, Joshua Barrick was 40 years old; Juliana Farmer was 45 years; Tommy Elliott was 63 and James Tutt was 64. Deana Eckert, 57, died later Monday.

His LinkedIn profile revealed that the assailant was an intern at the bank for three years and then had been working full-time there for almost two years. The law enforcement source stated that Sturgeon had been informed that he was being fired from his bank job.

According to a source, the gunman wrote a note to his friends and parents indicating that he intended to attack his workplace. However, it’s not clear when this message was discovered.

Police officials stated that Sturgeon was still firing when officers arrived. Police officials said at least two people were wounded, with one rookie being shot in his head. The victim was later admitted to critical condition.

A federal source informed SME that the weapon used in the shooting was an AR-15 style rifle. 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 that’s reignited a fierce political fight over gun control.

According to the 2021 National Firearms Survey the semi-automatic rifle was the most common sporting rifle in America. 30% of US gun owners claimed that they have an AR-15 or similar rifle.

Monday’s massacre was the 146th mass shooting so far this year with four or more victims, not including a gunman, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear instructed flags in Kentucky to remain at half-staff from Friday to honour the Louisville victims. But some Democratic legislators shared concerns that expressions of sorrow will not be met with any meaningful solution to gun violence.

“My worry is that everybody will raise their fists in anger and mourn and then in six weeks, eight weeks we go back to doing the same – nothing,” state Sen. David Yates told SME on Monday. “I hope that they all don’t have to die in vain like so many of the other victims of these mass shootings. Maybe something positive can come from it.”

Joe Biden reiterated his call for gun reform legislation, and called on Republican lawmakers join the Democrats to act.

“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 tweeted.

Police said that the shooter opened fire at the bank around 8:30 am, which was about thirty minutes before it opens to the public. Buchheit-Sims said that the gunman opened fire on bank staff who were meeting for their morning in a conference hall.

Caleb Goodlett, Caleb’s spouse told SME affiliate WLKY that one bank worker called her husband in a panic while she was hiding inside a vault. According to him, by the time that he reached 911, the police had already been informed about the shooting.

“Just a very traumatic phone call to get,” Goodlett told the affiliate. He said that his wife wasn’t seriously injured.

Nickolas Wilt was a 26 year-old rookie officer. He ran towards the gunfire and was hit in the head. Jacquelyn Gilaroel, interim Louisville Metro Police Chief, said. Just 10 days prior to the shooting, he had just graduated from police academy.

Wilt was undergoing brain surgery, and was still in critical but stable condition on Monday afternoon.

The bank sits on the fringe of Louisville’s developing downtown business district, said state Sen. Gerald Neal, who represents the district where the shooting happened.

“You wouldn’t really expect anything to happen at this location,” he said.

Despite the shock of the shooting in Kentucky’s most populated city, Neal thinks discussions about gun control in the state will still be an “uphill battle,” he said.

“This is not a state that’s friendly to those who would think about gun reform … or gun control in some way or even reasonable, as you might consider, gun steps that we could take in terms of restricting them. It isn’t that state. However, the effort continues.”

Tommy Elliott, a bank senior vice president, was one of the victims. He is remembered as an admired mentor and community leader by both local and state officials.

“Tommy was a great man. He loved people, and was keen to help them achieve their goals. He embraced me when I was very young and interested in politics,” Yates, the state senator, told SME. “He was about lifting people up, building them up.”

Elliott was also close friends with Beshear and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, who said he spent Monday morning at the hospital with Elliott’s wife.

“It is painful, painful for all of the families I know,” Greenberg said. “It just hits home in a unique way when you know one of the victims so well.”

Beshear remembered Elliott as an “incredible friend” and also called the others who were killed “amazing people” who will be missed and mourned by their communities.

Greenberg stated that the city will establish a center for family support in partnership with the American Red Cross, to help those who are affected.

“To the survivors and the families, our entire city is here to wrap our arms around you,” Greenberg added.

The company posted on Facebook that members of Old National Bank’s executive team including the CEO Jim Ryan were in Louisville on Monday to deal with the aftermath of the shooting.

“As we await more details, we are deploying employee assistance support and keeping everyone affected by this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers,” Ryan said in a statement Monday morning.

Before Monday’s shooting, the gunman had not had “any prior engagement” with police, the interim chief said.

According to the spokesperson of the University of Alabama he graduated December 2020 with his masters and bachelors degrees in finance.

According to his LinkedIn profile, after three summers of interning at Old National Bank he was hired in June 2021 as a Commercial Development Professional.

One of Sturgeon’s former high school classmates who knew the shooter and his family well said the horrific news Monday came as a “total shock.”

“I can’t believe it,” said the former classmate, who asked not to be identified and has not spoken with Sturgeon in recent years. “I can’t even say how much this doesn’t make sense.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled Tommy Elliott’s last name.