A mass shooting on Monday morning at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, has left at least five dead, including the perpetrator, marking the worst such incident in the city since 1989.
The Louisville Metro Police Department announced in a press conference that they had “neutralized” the shooter, an Old National Bank employee who opened fire in the conference room of its downtown location around 8:30am ET.
Eight injured victims, including two police officers, were hospitalized in varying conditions.
“They encountered active gunshots still being fired at inside the location at that time,” said Louisville Police Department Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey.
Anyone with any information is encouraged to call our anonymous tip line at 574-LMPD
— LMPD (@LMPD) April 10, 2023
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said shortly after the shooting that he was headed to the city to assess the situation, as did the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Beshear also noted that his close friend, who remained unnamed, was among those killed.
No motive for the shooting has been announced, though police said the shooter—identified by a University of Alabama news station as Connor Sturgeon, a 25-year-old White male—had mental health struggles.
In a statement released late Monday morning, Louisville Archbishop Shelton Fabre called the shooting “senseless.”
“Please join with me in praying for those who have died and for those who have been injured and for their families. Let us also pray for all in our community as we deal with this tragedy.”
The incident marked the 173rd mass shooting in the United States so far in 2023, and was followed shortly after by another fatal shooting at Jefferson Community & Technical College, just a few blocks from Old National Bank.
The two mass shootings were reportedly the first this year in Kentucky, a state with some of the most lax gun laws in the country. Under current legislation, permits are not required to carry handguns in public. Earlier this year, state lawmakers began discussion of two bills that would expand the right to carry concealed weapons to anyone age 18 or older, down from age 21.
Democratic Rep. George Brown Jr., a Black Catholic state lawmaker from Lexington, told reporters he doesn’t think the proposed laws square with the current reality of gun violence in America.
“It seems to me, even with those over 21 having concealed carry, it’s almost like the wild, wild West,” he told Spectrum News 1.
“I don’t know who’s carrying and what you can say to somebody and what would trigger somebody.”
Brown has sponsored at least one gun law in recent years, including in 2018 when he attempted to pass legislation that would ban bump stocks and strengthen local governments to regulate guns as they see fit.
“I think we are at a crossroads and we are going to deal with what is happening in America in terms of guns and common sense legislation,” he said at the time, noting the difficulties the bill would face in the Kentucky legislature.
“It doesn't mean you don't do it because it might not be heard or it might not pass… The reason for doing it is because it is the right thing to do.”
The LMPD has announced that further updates on Monday’s shooting will be provided at a presser with Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg and Gov. Beshear at 3pm.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger and a seminarian with the Josephites.
