(Heavy) Connor Sturgeon was the gunman who killed four people and wounded at least nine others in a shooting at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky on April 10, 2023, Louisville police said at a press conference. Police said the 23-year-old Sturgeon was a bank employee. He is also dead, according to police.
Sturgeon was live-streaming video on Instagram at the time of the shooting, police said at a press conference. The video and the account belonging to Sturgeon were taken down by Instagram. It was not immediately clear how long the live video was being streamed on Instagram and whether any clips were posted elsewhere online. Police and Old National Bank have not confirmed Sturgeon’s employment status at the time of the shooting.
The victims killed in the shooting have been identified as Joshua Barrick, 40; Thomas Elliott, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and James Tutt, 64. Louisville Metro Police Officer Nickolas Wilt was wounded and is in critical condition, police said. The four victims all worked at Old National Bank along with the shooter, according to their LinkedIn profiles. The wounded victims other than the officers also worked at the bank, police said.
The Louisville Metropolitan Police Department said officers responded to calls of an active shooter at the downtown bank, in the 300 block of East Main Street, about 8:30 a.m. The “lone shooter” was found killed along with four other victims, according to police.
According to Louisville Interim Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, Officer Nick Wilt is 26 and graduated from the police academy in March 2023. Wilt was shot in the head, Gwinn-Villaroel said, and underwent brain surgery. He is in critical but stable condition. Three of the injured victims, including Wilt, are in critical condition at the University of Louisville Hospital, the interim chief said at the press conference. Three others are in non-critical condition and three were treated and released, she said.
Officer Nickolas Wilt, a new officer to the LMPD, ran towards the gunfire today to save lives. He remains in critical condition after being shot in the head. pic.twitter.com/yPNZBfAl7I
— LMPD (@LMPD) April 10, 2023
Gwinn-Villaroel said officers responded to the scene in three minutes. “The suspect shot at officers, we then returned fire and stopped that threat. The suspect is deceased,” she said. Along with Wilt, two other officers were injured as they exchanged gunfire with the suspect, Gwinn-Villaroel said. One was grazed with a bullet in his left side and the other suffered a minor elbow injury, she said.
Gwinn-Villaroel said, “I have so much respect for the families because they were still present and were very appreciative of what was done and how LMPD responded today. And they were actually embracing me as I was embracing them. But let me say this, the evil that took place today, we shouldn’t hear the tears that were coming out from these families. And that right there sticks because they are weeping because someone decided that they wanted to take life today.”
Here’s what you need to know about Louisville Old National Bank shooting suspect Connor Sturgeon:
1. Connor Sturgeon Called a Friend & Said He Was Going to ‘Kill Everyone at the Bank,’ According to Police Scanner Audio
BREAKING: Police confirm ‘multiple casualties’ following active shooter situation in downtown Louisville, Kentucky pic.twitter.com/IkMbFGKDLu
— Intel Point Alert (@IntelPointAlert) April 10, 2023
Police scanner audio, obtained by Heavy through Broadcastify, revealed details of what officers were told as they responded to the scene. A dispatcher said preliminarily to officers that a caller said “eight to nine people were shot” at the bank, and the suspect was a white male with dark pants.
Deputy Police Chief Paul Humphrey said at a press conference that the “heroic response” from officers “absolutely saved lives.”
The dispatcher said in the audio that the suspect was a 25-year-old white male who called a friend and left a voicemail saying he was going to “kill everyone at the bank” because he was feeling suicidal. Connor Sturgeon’s name was mentioned as the suspect, according to the audio obtained by Heavy. The suspect was said to be 6-foot-4, according to the scanner audio.
The dispatcher said in the audio that the suspect was a 25-year-old white male who called a friend and left a voicemail saying he was going to “kill everyone at the bank” because he was feeling suicidal. Connor Sturgeon’s name was mentioned as the suspect, according to the audio obtained by Heavy. The suspect was said to be 6-foot-4, according to the scanner audio.
The mother and brother of the shooter approached police at the scene outside the bank, a police officer told the dispatcher on the scanner audio obtained by Heavy. The responding officers described a chaotic scene, with an “officer down right in front of the bank.” The responding officers reported hearing shots fired as they arrived. At one point during the audio, shots can be heard in the background.
According to the scanner audio, officers feared being “ambushed” as they tried to reach the wounded officer, and they found multiple people shot in a conference room. Another person suffered a leg wound in a bathroom inside the bank, and employees were hiding in a vault, dispatch audio indicated.
2. Connor Sturgeon, Who Is Accused of Entering the Bank With an AR-15-Style Rifle, Was a Syndications Associate & Portfolio Banker at Old National Bank
Connor Sturgeon/LinkedInConnor Sturgeon is the suspect in the shooting at Old National Bank, police said.
On a now-deleted LinkedIn profile, Connor Sturgeon wrote, “I am a Syndications Associate and Portfolio Banker with Old National Bank in Louisville following completion of the ONB Commercial Banking Development Training Program in April 2022. I am certified in the RMA Lending Decision Process, hold a Master’s in Finance from the University of Alabama, and am on the Young Professionals board for Junior Achievement of Kentuckiana.”
Sturgeon began working as a commercial development professional at the bank in June 2021 and moved into his most recent role in April 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile
“Handled multiple roles at once, including managing a business banking portfolio, building digital infrastructure for new syndications team, and meeting with prospective and existing clients of all sizes,” he wrote.
A federal law enforcement source told CNN that Sturgeon used an “AR-15-style rifle.”
3. Connor Sturgeon Graduated From the University of Alabama in 2020 & Interned at the Bank While in College
Lisa Sturgeon/FacebookConnor Sturgeon in a photo posted on his mother’s Facebook page.
Sturgeon was also an intern at the bank from May 2018 to August 2020, working at the bank “for 3 consecutive summers,” while he was in college, according to his LinkedIn profile.
4. Sturgeon Went to Floyd Central High School in Indiana, Where His Father Was the School’s Basketball Coach
According to Sturgeon’s mother’s Facebook page, Sturgeon attended Floyd Central High School, about 10 miles northwest of Louisville in southern Indiana. His father, Todd Sturgeon, was the boys basketball coach at the school until 2022 and coached Connor Sturgeon when he was a student at the school, according to the suspect’s mom’s Facebook page. He was named “Mr. Floyd Central 2016,” according to a tweet from the high school’s newspaper.
Todd Sturgeon became the coach at Floyd Central in 2014, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. He previously coached at the University of Indianapolis. According to the Courier-Journal, Sturgeon was a 6-foot-4 sophomore at the high school when his father took the job. His younger brother was in middle school at the time.
