The mother of the 25-year-old bank worker who killed five people and wounded nine others in a shooting rampage at his Kentucky workplace had frantically called emergency to warn of her son’s plans, call records show.
The calls, including one from an employee who watched Monday’s attack while on a video conference meeting, were shared on Wednesday (local time) by the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department.
Police identified the shooter in Louisville as Connor Sturgeon, who was employed at the Old National Bank’s downtown branch at the time of the shooting. He was killed by police on Monday.
On Monday morning, amid a flurry of calls coming in from panicked bank employees as the shooting unfolded during a staff meeting a woman who identified herself as the suspect’s mother called in to the city’s emergency line.
Between shaky breaths, she told the operator she had heard from her son’s roommate that he had left a note indicating he had a gun and was heading toward the bank.
“My son might be [redacted] has a gun and heading to the Old National on Main Street here in Louisville,” she said.
“This is his mother. I’m so sorry, I’m getting details secondhand. I’m learning about it now. Oh my Lord.”
The woman, whose name was not revealed on the recording, went on to say:
“He’s never hurt anyone, he’s a really good kid.
“We don’t even own guns, I don’t know where he would have gotten a gun.”
Another caller told the emergency operator an officer was down, having fallen right after arriving at the bank.
“I just wanted to make sure you understood that there was an officer down,” the man tells the operator.
“There are several officers here now, but the one hasn’t moved since he’s been shot. … I haven’t seen a foot or anything moving.”
Among the injured in the bank attack was 26-year-old rookie officer Nickolas Wilt. He had graduated from the police academy just10 days earlier and was shot in the head. He remains in a critical condition in hospital.
The emergency call logs were released a day after Louisville police released dramatic police body camera footage showing their response to the shooting.
There have been 146 mass shootings in the US already in 2023, the most at this point in the year since 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as four or more shot or killed, not including the shooter.
Barely two weeks before the Louisville massacre, a former student at a private Christian school in Nashville shot and killed three nine-year-old students and three staff members. While mass shootings have become common in the US, the shooting stunned the Tennessee city and the country.
In Louisville, the gunman’s family said in a statement on Wednesday that he had suffered from mental health issues that they had been “actively addressing” before his rampage.
In the statement, released to a Louisville television station, the family said there were “never any warning signs or indications he was capable” of carrying out a mass shooting.
“No words can express our sorrow, anguish, and horror at the unthinkable harm our son Connor inflicted on innocent people, their families, and the entire Louisville community,” the statement said.
“We mourn their loss and that of our son, Connor. We pray for everyone traumatised by his senseless acts of violence and are deeply grateful for the bravery and heroism of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department.”
The station, Fox-affiliated WDRB, posted the statement on its website after receiving it from a lawyer for the family on Tuesday night. It came as hundreds gathered for a solemn vigil to remember the dead and injured in the bank shooting.
The statement said Sturgeon had texted his family moments before he opened fire, saying “I love you”.
Their lawyer said family members drove to the downtown bank branch, hoping to find him but “by the time they get there, it was too late”.
Reuters could not independently verify the statement, and the station did not provide the lawyer’s name.
– with AAP
