A Louisville, Kentucky-based employee of Old National Bank opened fire at his workplace Monday, killing five people and wounding several others while live-streaming the event on Instagram, police said.
Police identified the victims as:
- Tommy Elliott, 63, a senior vice president at the bank;
- Josh Barrick, 40, a senior vice president of commercial real estate;
- Deana Eckert, 57, an executive administrative assistant;
- Jim Tutt, 64, a commercial real estate market executive for the southern region;
- Juliana Farmer, 45, a loan analyst.
Louisville Metro Police Department Interim Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel identified the shooter as Connor Sturgeon, 25, who is listed on LinkedIn as a syndications associate and portfolio banker.
Sturgeon opened fire inside a conference room during a staff meeting roughly a half-hour before the bank was set to open for the day, Rebecca Buchheit-Sims, a manager at the bank, told CNN.
Buchheit-Sims, attending the meeting virtually, told the network the incident “happened very quickly.”
“I witnessed people being murdered. I don’t know how else to say that,” she said.
Police arrived at the scene within three minutes, exchanged gunfire with Sturgeon and killed him.
"The suspect shot at officers. We then returned fire and stopped that threat," Gwinn-Villaroel told CNBC.
Sturgeon, who had interned at the bank for three consecutive summers before being hired there in June 2021, had been notified he was going to be fired, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told CNN.
“There are no words to adequately describe the sadness and devastation that our Old National family is experiencing as we grieve the tragic loss of our team members and pray for the recovery of all those who were injured,” Old National Bank CEO Jim Ryan said in a statement Monday night. “Obviously, this is an incredibly difficult situation, and our entire focus is on making sure that everyone affected has the support and assistance they need.”
Nine people, including two police officers, were treated at University of Louisville Hospital, UofL Health spokeswoman Heather Fountaine told The Associated Press. Three were listed in critical condition. (One, Eckert, later died.)
Three were discharged by early Monday afternoon, UofL Health’s chief medical officer told The Wall Street Journal.
Nickolas Wilt, a 26-year-old police officer listed in critical but stable condition, graduated from the police academy March 31.
"I just swore him in," Gwinn-Villaroel told CNBC. Wilt was shot in the head while responding to the shooting and underwent surgery.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and executives from Old National Bank traveled to Louisville shortly after the shooting.
Beshear said he lost one of his closest friends Monday.
“Tommy Elliott helped me build my law career, helped me become governor, gave me advice on being a good dad," Beshear said, according to The Associated Press. "He's one of the people I talked to most in the world, and very rarely were we talking about my job. He was an incredible friend.”
Elliott had served as chair of Beshear's inaugural committee in 2019.
“These are irreplaceable, amazing individuals that a terrible act of violence tore from all of us,” Beshear said of the victims.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg called the attack "an evil act of targeted violence,” according to The Associated Press.
Meta, the company that owns Instagram, said in a statement that it “quickly removed the livestream of this tragic incident this morning.”
“That’s tragic to know that that incident was out there and captured,” Gwinn-Villaroel said, according to The Associated Press.
