Louisville Bank Shooting: Where Did Suspect Get His Rifle?

• A bodycam footage shows the horrifying scene during the Louisville bank shooting
• Connor Sturgeon legally purchased his rifle
• Louisville Mayor demands urgent action against gun violence

The Louisville Metro Police Department has released dramatic bodycam footage of officers responding to the bank shooting on Monday. Five people were killed, and an officer fatally shot the suspect.

The bodycam footage depicts the fraught interactions between police officers and the assailant Connor Sturgeon. Officer Nickolas Wilt drives up to the scene with his training officer, identified as Cory "CJ" Galloway, on camera.

Louisville Bank Shooting Suspect Legally Purchased Rifle

Wilt, according to the police, was shot in the head as he fled toward the gunfire they were confronting as they arrived. He's listed as being in critical condition. As captured by Wilt's camera, his service pistol is in both hands as he follows Galloway up the exterior steps to the bank. The video ends before he is shot.

Bodycam footage from Galloway, who was also wounded, shows him receiving fire and then taking cover behind a planter as officers discuss their inability to see the shooter and the fact that he is firing through the bank's front windows.

Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey stated that the shooter shattered glass from the vestibule windows, and when he opened fire, officers could determine his location and return fire. According to CNN, Galloway's camera audio emits multiple shots as he peers into the bank's foyer.

Meanwhile, the Louisville shooting suspect had legally purchased the AR-15 rifle used in the atrocity a week prior, according to police. Sturgeon legally purchased the firearm from a local Louisville dealer, Louisville police chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Louisville Gun Violence

Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Democratic Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg disclosed that a close acquaintance of theirs was among the casualties. Per The Hill, Greenberg stated that 40 individuals had been shot to death in Louisville since the beginning of the year.

Greenberg demanded immediate short-term action to "end this gun violence epidemic now, so that fewer people die on our streets, in our banks, in our schools, and in our churches" and urged Kentucky and Washington, DC leaders to assist.

Greenberg also called for changes to state laws that, according to him, presently permit the recovered assault rifle to be auctioned off and returned to Kentucky streets. Authorities are investigating the motive of the gunman, identified as Connor Sturgeon, who allegedly live-streamed the attack on Instagram.

Joshua Barrick, 40, James Tutt, 64, Thomas Elliot, 63, Juliana Farmer, 45, and Deana Eckert, 57, were identified as the victims. Monday's mass shooting, which sent nine patients to the University of Louisville Hospital, hardly necessitated any changes to the operating room schedule, according to the hospital's chief medical officer. This is how prevalent gun violence incidents have become.

Joining municipal officials at a news briefing on Tuesday, Dr. Jason Smith pleaded for action that could help prevent or at least reduce the regular carnage his staff witnesses, USA Today reported. A bank manager stated that the catastrophe began Monday morning when an employee opened fire in a conference room during a staff meeting. Gwinn-Villaroel stated that officers responded to reports of gunfire at the Old National Bank at 8:38 a.m. and exchanged gunfire with the assailant, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gwinn-Villaroel stated that Sturgeon, 25, was a bank employee live-streaming during the incident. Monday afternoon, a SWAT team entered his home in the Camp Taylor neighborhood of southern Louisville, and police searched the neighborhood for security camera footage.

According to his LinkedIn profile, which was removed after the shooting, Sturgeon was a summer intern at the bank beginning in 2018. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 2020 with a bachelor's and a master's degree. Sturgeon was born in Indiana and raised in Louisville. He played basketball at Floyd Central High School, where he matriculated. His father, Todd Sturgeon, was the high school's main basketball coach.

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