(Washington) Five people were killed and at least six people injured Monday morning in Louisville by a shooter who was shot, police said in the main city of the State of Kentucky, during a press briefing.
“It is confirmed that five people have been killed” and “at least six people have been taken to hospital” including a policeman, a police official said on American television, the shooting having taken place in a bank according to witnesses.
A witness told local channel WHAS11 that he saw a man with an “assault rifle” opening fire.
Some survivors managed to find refuge in the safe room, said a CNN reporter.
The local press reported a massive police presence in the area.
PHOTO MICHAEL CLEVENGER, USA TODAY NETW VIA REUTERS
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced on going there immediately.
PHOTO MICHAEL CLEVENGER/USA TODAY NETW, VIA REUTERS
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (center) with police at the crime scene.
City Mayor Craig Greenberg called on residents to avoid the area.
PHOTO REUTERS TV VIA REUTERS
Two people comfort each other after the shooting at the Old National Bank in Louisville.
Another witness, Debbie, told the local channel WDRB that she saw a victim on the ground, in front of a hotel, when she had stopped at a red light while driving her car.
It was then that shots rang out. “I took off,” she said. “When I turned around, I saw that one of the windows in the bank had been broken. »
The police presence was quickly massive, she describes. “They came from everywhere. The police came out of their cars with assault rifles.
On March 27, a person opened fire at a private elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, killing three 9-year-old children and three employees before being shot dead by police.
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.
The country has more individual weapons than inhabitants: one in three adults owns at least one weapon and nearly one in two adults lives in a home where there is a weapon.
The consequence of this proliferation is the very high rate of firearm deaths in the United States, unmatched by 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.