() — A 25-year-old man, who worked as a bank clerk in Louisville, Kentucky, found out he was being fired and wrote a note to his loved ones before heading to work Monday morning and carrying out a shooting incident. mass attack that left at least five people dead and eight others injured, according to a police source familiar with the investigation.
The shooter, identified as Connor Sturgeon, began shooting around 8:30 a.m. at the Old National Bank located in downtown Louisville, authorities said. He opened fire while some employees were in a morning meeting before the bank opened to the public. Rebecca Buchheit-Sims, the entity’s manager, told that she virtually attended the meeting and witnessed the murder of her co-workers.
Buchheit-Sims described Sturgeon as “extremely intelligent” and others who knew him told they were shocked to see the shooting, which sparked a massive police response in the heart of one of America’s most populous cities. But the shooter’s previous writings indicate he struggled to fit in before joining the Old National Bank team and was about to be fired when he walked into the bank with a rifle.
Sturgeon had worked at the bank for more than a year, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation. He livestreamed his attack on Instagram, a video that has since been removed from the platform.
Louisville Metropolitan Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said she had “no prior involvement” with police.
The four victims, all between the ages of 40 and 64, were identified as Joshua Barrick, Juliana Farmer, Tommy Elliott and James Tutt, the chief said. Gov. Andy Beshear said Elliott, a senior vice president at the bank, was one of his closest friends.
Of the nine people injured, three are hospitalized in critical condition, including Nickolas Wilt, a 26-year-old police officer who graduated from the police academy just 10 days ago. Wilt was shot in the head during a confrontation with Sturgeon on Monday morning and taken to hospital where he underwent brain surgery, Gwinn-Villaroel said.
Three of the injured are in non-critical condition and three have been released, the police chief said. Five of the nine injured people had gunshot wounds, a hospital spokesman said.
The shooter wrote a note before the shooting
Sturgeon wrote a note to his parents and a friend stating that he was going to open fire at the bank, the police source said.
It’s unclear if that note was on paper or sent via email, or if it was seen before or after the incident, according to the source.
Sturgeon wrote on his LinkedIn profile that he interned at Old National Bank in Louisville for three consecutive summers between 2018 and 2020 before joining full-time in June 2021.
The gunman broadcast live during the attack
The shooting was broadcast live on Instagram and has since been deleted. Police are in possession of the video, according to the police source.
Earlier on Monday, Gwinn-Villaroel said police were “hopeful” that they would be able to download the footage from the live stream.
“I will say this, that the suspect was broadcasting live. And unfortunately, that’s tragic. Knowing that that incident was out there and was caught,” Gwinn-Villaroel said.
Buchheit-Sims, the bank’s manager, told that Sturgeon had a “drab personality. His temperament is quite discreet. I have never seen the boy get angry or upset about anything in public. He was more or less relaxed.”
Buchheit-Sims said he didn’t know anything about the attacker having any previous complaints or threats. She remembered him as “extremely intelligent.”
The attacker showed no warning signs, says classmate
The shooter, identified as Connor Sturgeon, was killed by police during an exchange with authorities, according to acting Louisville Metropolitan Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.
Sturgeon graduated from the University of Alabama in December 2020, according to a university spokesperson. She participated in an accelerated master’s program and earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in finance at the same time, spokesman Shane Dorrill said.
Sturgeon previously played basketball and track for his high school in suburban Louisville, and was named a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist in 2015, according to local news reports.
A former Sturgeon high school classmate who knew him and his family well said he never saw any “kind of red flags that this could happen.”
“This is a total shock. He was a very good boy who came from a very good family,” said the classmate, who asked not to be named and has not spoken to Sturgeon in recent years. “I can’t even tell you how much this doesn’t make sense. I can not believe it”.
The attacker wrote about the difficulty to fit in
In a 2018 college essay posted on the Course Hero website, a user identified as a University of Alabama student named Connor Sturgeon wrote that he had trouble adjusting to school.
“My self-esteem has long been an issue for me,” the essay said. “As a late developer in middle and high school, I struggled to some degree to fit in, and this has given me a somewhat negative image of myself that persists today. Making friends has never been particularly easy, so I have more experience than most trading solo.”
The author wrote that in college he had “begun to mature socially and am beginning to see improvement in this area,” and that he hoped “to become more self-aware and begin to become a ‘better’ person.”
The shooter’s father, Todd Sturgeon, was the head coach of the University of Indianapolis men’s basketball team for 10 years and then coached basketball and taught US history at his son’s high school, according to news reports and your LinkedIn profile.
A 2007 story published by Todd Sturgeon’s alma mater, DePauw University, cited an Indianapolis Star article about his retirement from the University of Indianapolis that year, in which he said his son Connor inspired him to leave the team.
“Todd Sturgeon said he was seeing his son, Connor, at basketball camp recently when it dawned on him: Maybe he’d rather have more time to spend with his own kids than other people’s,” the article said.
‘s Eric Levenson, Kristina Sgueglia, Celina Tebor and John Miller contributed to this report.
