LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky shooter who opened fire Monday at a downtown Louisville bank, killing five people and injuring eight others, livestreamed the attack, police said.
Connor Sturgeon, 25, opened fire at Old National Bank where he worked, said interim Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel. Responding officers were immediately met by gunfire, returned fire and killed him, police said.
The gunman used a rifle in the shooting, which left three people in critical condition, the chief said. One of those was a Louisville officer who had just graduated from the police academy, Gwinn-Villaroel said.
The chief confirmed said Monday afternoon that the shooter livestreamed the attack but didn’t provide any additional details.
“The suspect was livestreaming, and, unfortunately, that’s tragic to know that incident was out there and captured. We’re hopeful that we can have that footage removed,” Gwinn-Villaroel said.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement that it had “quickly removed the livestream of this tragic incident this morning.”
The University of Alabama said a person named Connor Sturgeon attended UA from fall 2016 to December 2020. Sturgeon was in a special accelerated program to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees simultaneously. He graduated with degrees in commerce and business administration and a master’s in finance, the university said.
People who previously worked at the bank said they were shocked by Sturgeon’s deadly actions Monday.
“I mean, to be honest, I can’t even wrap my head around that Connor would do this,” said Kevin Luoma, 42, who worked at Old National Bank for a year and a half and left in May 2022. “I talked to him every day. I literally talked to him every day. I knew him, not outside of work, but I knew him at work. And he was a good worker. And we talked about sports all the time.”
Luoma said that when they worked together, the gunman had recently completed an internship at the bank and was hired at the bank. “He had his whole life ahead of him. Now, I don’t know what happened between then and now, but something had to have happened that would affect his life,” he said.
“How is that even possible? … This is not the Connor that I know.”
Debbie Moore, 64, who retired from the bank in December 2021 after 16 years, said Monday’s event were shocking.
“The fact that it was Connor is even more surprising,” Moore said, adding that she knew the gunman only at work but “never thought anything negative” him.
Other mass shooters have previously livestreamed attacks. In March 2019, a white supremacist from Australia live-streamed on Facebook the mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 people.
In May 2022, a mass shooter in Buffalo, New York, livestreamed on Twitch an attack that killed 10 at the Buffalo Tops Friendly Market.
David K. Li and The Associated Press contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
