The mother of the Louisville bank shooter called 911 saying that her son “currently has a gun and is heading toward” the Old National Bank in the city’s downtown.
“I need your help. He’s never hurt anyone, he’s a good kid,” the mother of 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon said. She identified herself as his mother during the 911 call, according to the Associated Press.
Another one of those who called 911 to report the shooting was a woman who was taking part virtually in the bank staff’s morning meeting using Microsoft Teams to participate via a video call.
The 911 calls were released by police on Wednesday. Those who made the calls were not identified by police and some information was edited out but the first call came from a woman who was on a video call inside the bank, per teh AP.
Screaming and crying during the call, which lasts four minutes, she says that there’s an active shooter at the bank’s downtown branch.
“I just watched it on a Teams meeting,” she said during the call. “We were having a board meeting. With our commercial (lending) team. We heard multiple shots and everybody started saying, ‘Oh my God’ and then he came into the board room.”
Bank manager Rebecca Buchheit-Sims told CNN that the bank staff were attending their morning meeting before opening for the day when the shooting took place. She said she was taking part in the meeting virtually via the video call.
She told the network that the shooting “happened very quickly”.
“I witnessed people being murdered,” she said. “I don’t know how else to say that.”
One of the subsequent 911 calls reporting the shooting came from a woman who was in the building. Gunshots can be heard in the background during the call.
“I’m in a closet hiding,” she says in the call, adding that people have been shot and that she knows who the shooter is, saying “He works with us”.
The shooting was over in one minute, after which Sturgeon waited for police to arrive. He was then shot and killed by law enforcement.
The 25-year-old livestreamed the attack on Instagram, but the footage has since been removed.
The social media footage starts by showing the AR-15-style firearm, after which a bank worker says “Good morning” to the shooter, according to an official who outlined the events shown in the video, CNN reported.
The official said the footage shows the gunman then trying to shoot the woman who just spoke to him, but that he’s unable to because the safety is on and the firearm still needs to be loaded.
He then takes the safety off and loads the weapon before he proceeds to shoot the woman in the back.
The gunman then fires at other members of staff, who attempt to flee. The shooter didn’t move to other floors of the bank where workers were present.
After a minute of shooting, the gunman sits down in the lobby of the building, in an area facing the street, seemingly waiting for law enforcement to arrive.
About 90 seconds later, the police arrive at the scene, gunfire is exchanged and the shooter is shot and killed.
Those killed in the shooting include Joshua Barrick, 40; Juliana Farmer, 45; Deana Eckert, 57; Tommy Elliott, 63; and James Tutt, 64.
Ms Eckert was among the nine people taken to hospital on Monday before she passed away. Of the eight people who were shot but are still alive, five had been able to leave the hospital as of Tuesday.
A hospital spokesperson added that Officer Wilt has undergone brain surgery and remains in critical condition. Of the three still in hospital, the other two are listed as being in fair condition.
There have been 147 mass shootings – defined as an instance in which four or more people are shot – so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Almost 12,000 people have died because of gun violence this year in the US.
