A University of Alabama graduate opened fire at a bank in downtown Louisville Monday morning, killing five people and wounding several others while livestreaming the attack.
The alleged shooter, Connor Sturgeon, was killed by officers, police in Kentucky said in an afternoon press conference. He was an employee at the bank, police said.
Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said Sturgeon was 23 but other accounts state his age was 25.
“That’s tragic to know that that incident was out there and captured,” she said of the livestream. “We’re hopeful that we can have that incident removed, that footage removed.”
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.”
Sturgeon attended the University of Alabama from the fall of 2016 through December 2020, according to Shane Dorrill, UA’s assistant director of communications.
Sturgeon completed his undergraduate studies with a double major in finance and economics. He then received a Master’s of Science Degree, also from the University of Alabama.
According to Sturgeon’s LinkedIn profile, he was a syndications associate and portfolio banker with Old National Bank in Louisville following completion of the ONB Commercial Banking Development Training Program in April 2022.
His profile also said he was on the Young Professionals board for Junior Achievement of Kentuckiana.
Sturgeon had learned he was going to be fired from the bank and wrote a note for his parents and a friend that he was going to carry out a shooting at the bank, CNN reported.
The police chief said she did not know how he got the rifle used in the shooting and she was not aware of any past police interactions with Sturgeon.
Sturgeon may have had mental health issues, NBC News reported.
Louisville Metro Police Department Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey told reporters officers who arrived on the scene “encountered active gunshots still being fired inside the location at that time.”
“We then returned fire and stopped that threat,” Chief Gwinn-Villaroel said this afternoon.
An Instagram account that apparently belonged to Sturgeon was taken offline after the shooting, WDRB TV reported.
That account, that report stated, posted two movie quotes: “I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it,” and “I could burn the whole place down” — the latter he described as “Monday vibes.” His account also posted the words, “They won’t listen to words or protests. Lets see if they hear this.”
Sturgeon’s family lived in Greenville, Indiana and he graduated from Floyd Central High School, where he played basketball where his father, former University of Indianapolis basketball coach Todd Sturgeon, was head basketball coach, the Louisville Courier Journal reported.
Multiple photographs of him playing basketball in the News and Tribune in Jeffersonville, Indiana show Sturgeon wearing a helmet on the court. A teammate told The Daily Beast Sturgeon wore the helmet because he suffered multiple concussions.
The people Sturgeon killed were identified as Joshua Barrick, Deana Eckert, Thomas Elliot, Juliana Farmer, and James Tutt.
Nine people, including two police officers, were treated for injuries from the shooting, University of Louisville Hospital spokeswoman Heather Fountaine said in an email.
One of the officers was in critical condition, she said. At least three patients had been discharged.
“Please pray for all of the families impacted and for the city of Louisville,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear tweeted.
The shooting happened in a building on East Main Street not far from the Louisville Slugger Field and Waterfront Park.
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