The gunman who killed five people and injured eight in downtown Louisville “set up an ambush” for responding officers with an AR-15 purchased legally six days earlier Authorities released body-camera video of the dramatic shootout that left one officer in critical condition. The footage, captured by the body camera of one of the first two officers to respond, shows one officer — 10 days into his new job — falling to the ground within seconds of approaching the entrance of Old National Bank. His training officer, grazed by a bullet, scrambles for cover. Police said gunman Connor Sturgeon was fatally shot by the training officer, but not before he had killed five of his co-workers in what police called a targeted attack. Officers Nickolas Wilt and Cory Galloway were the first to arrive at the scene.
The Louisville mayor’s spokesman, Kevin Trager, said Sturgeon, 25, was a full-time employee of the bank and was “targeting co-workers.” Residents of Louisville, which one official called “the biggest small town in America,” were reeling with grief one day after the shooting. Among them were Mayor Craig Greenberg, who was friends with two of the people killed and who made a forceful plea to state lawmakers for the power to enact city-specific gun-control measures in Louisville. Sturgeon had contacted at least one person before the shooting, saying he was suicidal and contemplating doing harm, and he left a note behind. Sturgeon purchased the gun, an AR-15-style weapon, on April 4 from a local dealer. It was 2023’s 16th U.S. mass killing in which four or more people were fatally shot, according to a database maintained by Northeastern University, the Associated Press and USA Today. “We need help. We need help from our friends in Frankfort and help from our friends in Washington, D.C.,” Greenberg said. “This isn’t about partisan politics. This is about life and death.”