Shooter in Louisville purchased AR-15 rifle legally: Police chief

World
By William

Monday’s mass shooting in the US state of Kentucky was a ‘targeted’ attack on colleagues, police say.

Law enforcement in the United States has revealed that a gunman who killed five people in Louisville, Kentucky, assaulted colleagues with a firearm he legally purchased in the week leading up to the attack.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said the gunman, identified as 23-year-old Connor Sturgeon, purchased an AR-15 rifle from a local dealer on April 4. He later livestreamed the attack.

“We have learned that the suspect in this incident was a current employee at Old National Bank,” Gwinn-Villaroel said, referring to the scene of the shooting. She added: “We know this was a target. He knew those people, of course, because he worked there.”

The police chief also explained that her officers had used a search warrant to extract evidence from Sturgeon’s residence for their ongoing investigation into the shooting. The body camera footage would be released later on Tuesday, she said.

Monday’s attack was the latest example of a deadly mass shooting in the US, where gun violence has become a grim and persistent reality.

According to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, there have been 147 mass shootings so far in 2023 in which four or more people were shot and killed, not counting the attacker.

The dead in Monday’s attack have been identified as Joshua Barrick, 40; Deana Eckert, 57; Thomas Eliot, 63; Juliana Boer, 45; and James Tutt, 64. Nine people were also injured, including two police officers responding to the shooting.

A University of Louisville doctor said four patients remain in the hospital, including two in the intensive care unit (ICU). One police officer remained in “critical condition”, but the other patient in ICU is now said to be in “stable condition”.

During Tuesday’s press conference, authorities urged people to donate blood to help local hospitals.

“We have delivered more than 170 units of blood products to the hospital to treat those affected by this,” Steve Cunanan, CEO of the Red Cross Regional Branch, told reporters.

Local authorities stated that the community would hold vigils to bring people together to mourn and remember the lives lost. They also linked the Louisville shooting to a broader epidemic of gun violence across the country.

“Our community is suffering. But we need policies that prevent this from happening again,” US Representative Morgan McGarvey said at Tuesday’s news conference.

He pointed to the fact that the gunman expressed suicidal thoughts leading up to the attack: “We don’t have the resources on the books to deal with someone who poses an acute danger to themselves or others.”

Speaking at the press conference, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg noted that 40 people have been shot dead in the city since the beginning of the year. He too had survived a workplace shooting last year, he explained.

“This is not about party politics. This is about life and death. This is about preventing tragedies,” he said.

“Maybe you think this will never happen to you, will never happen to your friends or loved ones. I used to think so. The sad truth is that now nobody in our city, nobody in our state, nobody in our country has that luxury anymore.”

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