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An employee opened fire on Monday at a bank in the main city of Louisville, Kentucky. Authorities said in the east-Central American state that he killed five people and wounded at least eight before being shot.
Before being shot dead by police, a young American opened fire on Monday, April 10, at the bank where he was employed, in the main city of Louisville, Kentucky, killing five people as images of the attack were broadcast live on the Internet. killed and wounded at least eight. ,
After an initial death toll of four people, police in Louisville (central-eastern United States) announced in the evening that a fifth victim, a 57-year-old woman, had died from her injuries.
Louisville Police Chief Jacqueline Givin-Villaroel said at a news conference that the shooter, Connor Sturgeon, 25, was “live streaming” the attack.
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A spokeswoman for Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) said in a statement to AFP that the company was “in contact with law enforcement” and “immediately removed the ‘live stream’ of this tragic incident this morning.”
Authorities did not specify the shooter’s motive, but CNN said that Connor Sturgeon had just been told he would be fired and had left a letter for his family saying he was planning to open fire on the bank’s premises. going.
Called shortly after 8:30 a.m. to a shooting at the premises of the Old National Bank in the city center, police arrived on the scene “in less than three minutes,” said Jacqueline Givin-Villarel. According to CNN, some survivors managed to find shelter in the vault. “The suspect fired in the direction of the police, we returned fire and neutralized the threat,” said Jacqueline Givin-Villarel.
“Devilish Act”
“The officers entered the building knowing they were putting their lives at risk to save others,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said at the press conference. Two officers were injured in the encounter. One of them had a serious head injury and is in stable but critical condition after surgery on his brain, said Jacqueline Givin-Villarel.
A total of nine people were admitted to a Louisville hospital for treatment. And one of the injured died in the evening, bringing the death toll to five. Among the five people who have died, three are men and two are women, whose age was between 40 and 64 years.
“This was a diabolical act of targeted violence,” said Mayor Greenberg, who said he lost a “very good friend” in the killings. The victim, Tommy Elliott, was one of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s “closest friends”, who paid tribute to him and spoke out against gun violence. The Democratic governor expressed his “pain” after the day’s events, saying “acts like this break the ties that bind us together”.
Joe Biden called Andy Beshear that evening to discuss the “sad” incident, the White House said in a statement. The president had previously condemned “an absurd new episode of gun violence”. “Once again our country is in mourning,” he wrote on Twitter, persistently — and with little chance of success — asking Congress to ban assault rifles. According to CNN, citing a federal police source, the shooter was armed with a rifle that appeared to be an AR-15 type often used during killings in the country.
Spreading
The United States pays a very heavy price with the proliferation of firearms in its territory and Americans’ easy access to them. On March 27, a man opened fire at a private elementary school in neighboring Nashville, Tennessee, killing three 9-year-olds and three staff members who were shot by police.
The country has more personal weapons than residents: One in three adults owns at least one gun and nearly one in two adults lives in a household that has a gun. The result of this proliferation is the high rate of firearm deaths in the United States, which is unmatched by other developed countries.
According to the Gun Violence Archive database, nearly 49,000 people will die from gunshot wounds in 2021, compared to 45,000 in 2020, already a record year. This represents more than 130 deaths per day, of which more than half are suicides.
with AFP
