The Shooting of a 25-Year-Old Bank Employee in the Emergency Room: a Case of Multiple Gunshots
The chief medical officer for the University of Louisville Health said it was not unusual for the emergency room to see many gunshot victims in one day.
Authorities said a 25-year-old employee of Old National Bank had opened fire on his colleagues Monday morning as they gathered for a meeting before the bank opened its doors. The bank’s manager said she witnessed the shooting virtually as the meeting was being streamed.
The shooting that occurred on her screen happened quickly, as the woman who was attending the meeting watched in horror.
One of the hospitalized victims, 57-year-old Deana Eckert, died later Monday, police announced, though it is unclear if she was among the three people in critical condition earlier in the day.
The four other victims, who died Monday morning, were identified by police as Joshua Barrick, 40; Juliana Farmer, 45; Tommy Elliott, 63; and James Tutt, 64.
According to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation, the person who was fired from his job at the bank was Sturgeon, who had been employed there full-time for close to two years.
It’s unclear when the message in the note left for his parents and a friend was found, but it’s certain that he planned to use the weapon in his workplace shooting.
The gunman, who was still firing when police arrived, was killed in a shootout with officers, police officials said. At least two officers, including one who was shot in the head, were injured during the gunfire.
As long as America’s incessant cycle of mass shootings goes on – and there’s no sign it’s ending – police will be called to respond. The political system is deadlocked on the issue. There never seems to be calls for more investment in mental health after such killings. Many gun enthusiasts prioritize their right to bear arms over the life and liberty of people killed with high-powered firearms.
A Kentucky Bank Employee Shoots: An Employee’s Husband, A Bank Employee, a Member of the Old National Bank Executive Team, and Their Families
State flags will be flown at half-staff until Friday evening in Kentucky in honor of the victims but Democrats are concerned that meaningful gun violence solutions will not come and go.
This is not about politics. This is about life and death. This is about preventing tragedies. You might believe that this will never happen to you, or to your friends or loved ones. I used to think that way. The sad truth is that now no one in our city, no one in our state, no one in our country has that luxury anymore,” he continued.
“Too many Americans are paying for the price of inaction with their lives. When will Republicans in Congress act to protect our communities?,” the president said in a tweet.
Members of the Old National Bank executive team, including CEO Jim Ryan, were in Louisville Monday on the heels of the shooting, the company said on Facebook.
Ryan stated in a statement that they are giving employee assistance support and keeping everyone affected by the tragedy in their thoughts and prayers.
The husband told CNN that a bank worker hid inside a locked vault and frantically called her husband. The police were already aware of the shooting, he said.
She added that Wilt “did not hesitate.” He ran towards the man who was holding an assault rifle. The suspect, a 25-year-old bank employee who livestreamed the violence, was killed by Calloway.
The gunman, according to police, used an AR-15-style weapon that was purchased locally and legally six days before the attack. The AR-15 and its offshoots have been used in several recent mass shootings, including a deadly shooting at Nashville school two weeks before.
The bank sits on the fringe of Louisville’s developing downtown business district, state Sen. Gerald Neal, who represents the district where the shooting happened, told CNN. He said you wouldn’t expect anything to happen at this location.
Tommy Elliot: A Kentucky Police Officer in Critical Condition After a Gunman Opens Fire on a Bank Employee and a Kentucky Firefighter
This state is not friendly to people who want to change the way they own firearms, even if it is a reasonable approach to gun control. This is not that state. However, the effort continues.”
One of the shooting victims, bank senior vice president Tommy Elliot, was remembered by several local and state leaders as a close mentor and beloved community leader.
“Tommy was a great man. He cared about finding good people and putting them in positions to do great things. He embraced me when I was very young and interested in politics,” state senator Yates told CNN. “He was about lifting people up, building them up.”
Elliot was also close friends with Gov. Beshear and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, who said he spent Monday morning at the hospital with Elliot’s wife.
“It is painful, painful for all of the families I know,” he said of the latest shooting, adding: “It just hits home in a unique way when you know one of the victims so well.”
Beshear called the others who were killed amazing people, and said that he would be missed by their communities.
A Louisville police officer who was sworn in less than two weeks ago is in critical condition after stopping a gunman who opened fire at a downtown bank on Monday.
It was 8:38 a.m. local time on the Monday after Easter, and downtown Louisville was bustling with morning commuters. Interim Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel stated that Wilt and his training officer responded to the scene within three minutes.
But he was struck in the head. He is in a critical condition after having brain surgery, and was one of the nine people hospitalized after the shooting.
Prior to joining the police force, Wilt worked as an emergency medical technician, an emergency dispatcher and as a local firefighter. Baptist Health said he is still employed on an as-needed basis.
The day you plant the seeds is not the day you eat the fruit, wrote Brandon Tsay in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning at the Louisville Metro Police Department
A statement on his LinkedIn page offers insight into his service mindset: “The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit,” he wrote in the spot where a career biography would normally go.
As of Tuesday morning, three of the four people hospitalized are stable and the other is fair condition. Another four have been discharged. The hospital used more than 170 units of blood to treat the victims, prompting a representative from the Red Cross to call for more donations during a press conference on Tuesday.
“If the officer and Wilt hadn’t taken it upon themselves to not wait to assess everything but just went in to assess the threat so that more lives wouldn’t be lost, there would have been more victims,” said Gwinn-Villaroel.
In California, a 26-year-old software engineer, Brandon Tsay, wrestled a shooter to the ground at a dance hall in Monterey Park without knowing the gunman had just killed 11 people nearby.
Like the other patients who sustained gunshot wounds, he has a long road of recovery ahead, said Dr. Jason Smith, University of Louisville Health Chief Medical Officer.
The man who killed five people and injured eight others in a shooting in Louisville on Monday was able to buy the gun legally, authorities said Tuesday.
The Louisville Metro Police Department’s Interim Chief says the weapon was purchased six days before the attack from a Louisville dealer.
Crowell said emergency services received the first call about three minutes after the shooter opened fire, officers arrived on the scene about three minutes after that and police shot and killed Sturgeon three minutes later.
Prayers for the Elimination of Gun Violence in Louisville and the Struggle for State and Local Laws to Do More to Combat Gun Violence
Several officials made emotional pleas at the Tuesday news conference to federal and state legislators to do more to combat gun violence.
“I am a person of faith. I was raised in the church as a child. We’ve raised our kids in the church. Please, if you are a person of faith, and you want to give us your thoughts and your prayers, we want them and we need them,” said Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky.
We need policies in place that will prevent this from happening again, so that people don’t have to offer prayers to another community that has been torn apart by gun violence.
Greenberg said that forty people have been killed by guns so far this year in Louisville, urging state and federal government to take action on gun violence or to cede the power to the city.
“To be honest with you, we barely had to adjust our operating room schedule to be able to do this,” he said. “That’s how frequent we are having to deal with gun violence in our community.”
Smith said that he was tired after seeing gun violence victims at the hospital for 15 years, and it can be hard for medical professionals to tell families when a loved one has died.
It breaks your heart. When you hear someone screaming ‘mommy’ or ‘daddy,’ it just becomes too hard day in and day out to be able to do that,” he said.
What Can We Do to End the Gun Violence Epidemic Right Now? A Call to Action for Greenberg, Lorentzian Louisville Attorney’s Office
I have no idea what the answers are. But to everyone who helps make policy — at state, city, federal — I would simply ask you to do something. Because doing nothing, which is what we’ve been doing, is not working.”
Greenberg was a target of a shooting last year when he was a candidate for mayor. While he wasn’t injured in the shooting, CNN previously reported that a round appeared to strike his clothing in the incident.
“We have to take action now. We need short-term action to end this gun violence epidemic now so fewer people die on our streets, and in our banks, and in our schools and in our churches. We need some assistance for that. The mayor asked their friends in Washington DC as well as their friends in Germany for help.
Greenberg told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday that he had spoken with several local lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and planned to meet with them formally in the coming days to “talk about what we can do together.”
Greenberg, speaking during a news conference earlier Tuesday on the bank shooting, said that nobody has the “luxury” of thinking they won’t have a connection to gun violence at some point in their life.
Last year, a Kentucky grand jury indicted Quintez Brown, the man accused of shooting at Greenberg, on charges of attempted murder and first-degree wanton endangerment.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/politics/craig-greenberg-louisville-kentucky-mayor-shooting/index.html
The Louisville Officers who Shoot When the Bank Locks: What Happened to Greenberg and He’s Done With His Body Camera, and How We Can Protect His Foes
I was fortunate that one of my teammates shut the door. The suspect fled after the desks were thrown on top of the door. So, we are very blessed to be here today. All of us on the team are,” he said at the time on “New Day.”
Greenberg was running on a platform that focused on public safety, justice, affordable housing, strengthening education, jobs and making Louisville green.
Greenberg told Spectrum News 1 before his November victory that he must improve public safety and make the city safer for everyone.
A trained lawyer, Greenberg is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Harvard Law School, according to his bio. He helped launch 21c Museum Hotels, a regional “multi-venue” contemporary art museum and hotel chain, and is a co-owner of Ohio Valley Wrestling.
Harrowing, yet humbling, body camera footage of two Louisville officers who rushed into gunfire in Kentucky on Monday shows the demands placed upon police who respond to America’s proliferating mass shootings and the terrible price they may pay.
This is a raw, frightening scene, laced with courage and heroism. The political rituals of thought and prayers and gun reform look empty by comparison, as it offers a reality check about what unfolds in moments of terror.
It’s crucial to act quickly. Four people are already dead and a fifth is mortally wounded, when the shooter broke a window in the bank in a volley of shots. This makes it possible for Galloway to see. He shoots and yells, “I think he’s down … get the officer!” referring to Wilt, his trainee, who was shot on only his fourth time out on patrol. He is critically ill in the hospital.
“What you saw in that video was absolutely amazing. It’s tragic but it’s absolutely amazing,” Deputy Louisville Police Chief Paul Humphrey said, when he released the video.
“It’s just a tragic and brutal aspect of law enforcement in America. Officer Wilt tries to do his job and he is struck down in the course of trying to protect others,” former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.
There is increasing frustration among some police leaders about the risks their officers face while national and state leaders resist changes to gun laws.
The Senate Judiciary Committee was told in June of this year that the Phoenix Police Department was out-gunned and they didn’t need gun legislation.
And Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told CNN why his officers have to continue to train for active shooter situations. “We don’t want it to happen. Statistics show it will happen, he said. To do more about guns, to do more about mental health and to not have this happen over and over is where we challenge our leaders at a national level.
The split screen is a reminder that while partisan politics often paints a simple impression of the state of policing in America, heroism and cruelty co-exist and reality is nuanced.
Former Philadelphia and Washington, DC, police chief Charles Ramsey told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that authorities had learned about the need to show the public what happened from camera footage as quickly as possible. He said that things have changed in policing.
But the footage formed a heroic counterpoint to the depraved behavior of the shooter in Louisville, who live streamed on social media his rampage inside the bank.