ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
Police in Louisville, Ky., are investigating this country's latest mass shooting. It happened this morning at a bank. Authorities say a gunman, described as a bank employee, entered and began firing. He killed four people before police say they shot and killed him. Nine others were taken to the hospital, including three police officers. We're going to get the latest now from reporter Justin Hicks of Louisville Public Media. Hi, Justin.
JUSTIN HICKS, BYLINE: Hey there.
LIMBONG: So what information do we have at this point about what happened?
HICKS: So we know that Louisville Metro Police Department said it received a call about 8:38 this morning of shots fired inside Old National Bank. There's also some condo units and other businesses in this multistory building that the bank is in, but the shooting was confined to that bank. LMPD says officers arrived within just three minutes and almost immediately encountered a suspect who fired at them with a rifle. They exchanged gunfire with that person and killed him. Two police officers were shot. Another was injured during the incident. One of them was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Now, in total, five people died, including the gunman, and they were all employees of the bank.
LIMBONG: And what do we know about the victims?
HICKS: So their names are 63-year-old Tommy Elliott, 64-year-old Jim Tutt, 40-year-old Joshua Barrick and 57-year-old Juliana Farmer. In addition to those who were killed, nine people were taken to the hospital with injuries ranging from minor to critical. And one of those people that was injured is an officer identified as Nickolas Wilt, 26 years old, and he had just graduated from the police academy less than two weeks ago. He was shot in the head and underwent emergency brain surgery.
LIMBONG: What do we know, if anything, about the gunman? Like, who was he, and do we know anything about a motive?
HICKS: Yeah. We know a little bit. So police have identified the gunman as Connor Sturgeon. They said he's a white male in his mid-20s, and he was an employee of the Old National Bank. They also confirmed he was livestreaming during the incident, but they wouldn't answer any questions about the motives. And they said that he had no previous run-ins with police.
LIMBONG: It ends up that Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has a personal connection to this event. What are the details there?
HICKS: Yeah. So Governor Beshear addressed the media right after the shooting, and he was visibly shaken. He said he ran his 2015 campaign for state attorney general out of that building where the shooting happened, and he actually banked at that exact same branch. He described one of the victims, Tommy Elliott, as a close personal friend. Elliott was a senior vice president at the bank, and he was also very involved in politics.
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ANDY BESHEAR: Tommy Elliot helped me build my law career, helped me become governor, gave me advice on being a good dad. He's one of the people I talked to most in the world, and very rarely were we talking about my job. He was an incredible friend.
LIMBONG: How are people feeling in Louisville right now?
HICKS: Well, crazy enough, not long after this bank shooting, about a mile away, there was yet another shooting at a community college campus. And one person there was killed and another injured. It's unrelated to what happened to the bank, but these two shootings were in the heart of Louisville right downtown, and it's left people on edge. One of my colleagues spoke to Karon Anderson. He's a line cook at a restaurant near the bank. Anderson called it a sort of new trend where you never really know if you're safe.
KARON ANDERSON: I just woke up and think, I'm going to go get straight to work, get hammered on the line. Next thing you know, I come out. It's a crime scene. And when I heard that a lady saw a man on the ground, I knew it didn't go right. So, I mean, like I said, it's just sad that you got to go through this almost every day. Like, it's a new trend now that everybody just keeps getting killed and hurt.
HICKS: So all in all, investigators say it's going to take a long time before they can understand what happened and exactly why.
LIMBONG: Justin Hicks of Louisville Public Media. Thanks so much.
HICKS: Of course. You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
