A man opened fire Monday morning at a bank in Kentucky’s main city Louisville, killing four people and injuring nine while streaming live footage of the attack on the internet, before being shot dead by police.
The shooter is 23-year-old bank employee Connor Sturgeon, according to law enforcement.
He was “in live streaming on Instagram during the attack, Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said at a press conference.
In a statement to AFP, a spokeswoman for Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) said the company was “in contact with law enforcement” and claimed to have “quickly removed the “live stream” of this tragic event this morning “.
Authorities didn’t say the shooter’s motive, but CNN said Connor Sturgeon had just been told he would be fired and left a letter for his family saying he was going to open fire. at the bank’s premises.
Called shortly after 8:30 a.m. for shootings at the premises of the Old National Bank in the city center, the police arrived on the scene “in less than three minutes”, said Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.
Some survivors managed to find refuge in the vault, according to CNN. “The suspect fired in the direction of the police, we opened fire in response and neutralized this danger,” added Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.
“Diabolic Act”
The officers “entered the building knowing they were risking their lives to save others,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said at the press conference.
Two officers were injured in the exchange of gunfire. One of them was seriously hit in the head, and his condition is stable, but still critical after his brain operation, said Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.
In all, nine people were admitted for treatment at a Louisville hospital. Three are in critical condition, she added.
The four people who died, three men and one woman, were between 40 and 64 years old.
“It was a diabolical act of targeted violence,” said Mayor Greenberg, who said he lost a “very good friend” in the killings.
The victim, Tommy Elliott, was also one of the “closest friends” of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who paid tribute to him and spoke out against gun violence.
Such acts “tear the ties that bind us together,” the Democratic governor said, expressing his “pain” after the day’s events.
President Joe Biden has denounced “a new absurd episode of gun violence”.
“Once again, our nation is in mourning after yet another senseless episode of gun violence,” President Joe Biden wrote on Twitter, calling relentlessly — and with little chance of success — that Congress bans assault rifles.
It was a diabolical act of targeted violence
The shooter was armed with such a rifle, an AR-15 type, often used in shootings around the country, according to CNN, citing a federal police source.
Current drama
The United States pays a very heavy price for the spread of firearms in its territory and the ease with which Americans have access to them. Recall that on March 27, a person opened fire in a private elementary school in Nashville, in neighboring Tennessee, killing three 9-year-old children and three employees, before being shot dead by the police.
The country has more individual weapons than inhabitants: one in three adults owns at least one and almost one in two adults lives in a home where there is a weapon.
This proliferation explains the very high rate of death by firearm in the United States, without comparison with that of other developed countries. Around 49,000 people died from gunshot wounds in 2021, compared to 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record year. This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides.