Louisville mass shooter Connor Sturgeon left a chilling final voicemail message revealing his plans to “kill everyone” at the bank, according to police dispatch audio.
The audio, released by Broadcastify, captures the minute-by-minute police response to Monday’s horrible attack when the 25-year-old disgruntled employee gunned down his colleagues at the Old National Bank in downtown Louisville, Kentucky.
In the audio, the dispatcher is heard relaying to law enforcement officials on the scene that Sturgeon had called a friend before the attack and left a voicemail saying he felt “suicidal” and planned to “kill everyone at the bank”.
The motive is still unknown but sources say that he had been told he was being fired from the bank.
Sturgeon killed five people and wounded eight others. Those killed in Monday’s attack have been identified as Josh Barrick, 40; Tommy Elliott, 63; Jim Tutt, 64; Juliana Farmer, 57; and Deanna Eckert, 57.
Broadcastify released more than half an hour of audio between a dispatcher and officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department.
The audio revealed that officers told the dispatcher that the shooter was firing shots and that they were concerned about a possible ambush if they moved closer to the bank, Newsweek noted.
The officers also called for EMS as one of them was shot in the head on the bank steps. Gunfire could be heard on the audio, with officers saying there were “shots fired”.
Sturgeon went on his rampage after being notified that the bank where he had worked since 2021 was ending his employment, law enforcement sources told CNN.
Sturgeon also left a note for his parents and a friend telling them that he was going to attack the bank, the source added.
Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said that Sturgeon fired at responding officers, who returned fire to “stop that threat”. She confirmed that the suspect was shot and killed by police.
The chief said the shooter was live-streaming the incident on social media, and that police are hopeful that they will be able to have that footage removed.
One of the responding officers was grazed on his left side while the other suffered a limited elbow injury. One of the officers was struck in the head – 26-year-old Nicholas Wilt, who graduated from the police academy on 31 March.
“I just swore him in,” Chief Gwinn-Villaroel said during the press briefing. While Officer Wilt has come out of brain surgery, he remains in critical condition. “This will be a long complex investigation. For my LMPD officers who took it upon themselves to stop the threat so more lives would not be lost, thank you. Evil should not try to prevail” and we shouldn’t “let it take over our city.”
The Mayor of Louisville, Craig Greenberg, said Mr Elliott was “a very good friend of mine and of the governor’s”.
“This is really difficult for all of us across the city to process and accept. I ask that we respect the needs ... of the families of those who lost their lives today,” Mr Greenberg said during the briefing on Monday afternoon.
