In a shocking turn of events, it has been confirmed that the mother of the gunman who opened fire at a bank in Kentucky earlier this week placed an emergency call during the incident. This heartbreaking news has only added to the tragedy of the shooting, which claimed the lives of two people and injured several others. The details of the call and the shooter’s motives are still emerging, but the incident has once again brought the issue of gun violence to the forefront of public discussion.
In Kentucky, police have released frantic calls from witnesses reporting a mass shooting at a bank, including one from the gunman’s mother. She told a 911 operator that her son “currently has a gun and is heading towards” the bank. She also stated, “I need your help. He’s never hurt anyone; he’s a good kid.” Although none of the callers’ names are identified and other information is edited out of the calls, the first call was from a woman who was on a video call inside the bank on Monday.
She screamed and cried throughout a four-minute call and said there was an active gunman at the Old National Bank in central Louisville. “I just watched it on a Teams meeting,” she said. “We were having a board meeting. With our commercial (lending) team. We heard multiple shots, and then he came into the boardroom.”
Bank employee Connor Sturgeon, 25, used an AR-15 assault-style rifle in the attack, killing five co-workers while livestreaming before police shot him dead. Eight other people were injured, including a police officer who was shot in the head and remains in critical condition in hospital.
After the first call, others began streaming in. One caller said she was calling from inside the building as gunshots were heard in the background. “I’m in a closet hiding,” the caller said. She indicated that people had been shot and furnished a description of the shooting, saying, “I know the gunman. He works with us.”
“How long will it be before they get here?” She whispered, and the dispatcher told her that authorities were on the way and advised her to keep quiet. The caller replied when asked about the type of injuries, “I don’t know. I just saw a lot of blood.”
Another call came from a man inside the bank who told dispatchers the address and said, “We have an active shooting in our building. White male. He’s an employee of Old National Bank. Get here now. We need somebody now.” Another call came from a motorist driving down Main Street, who reported seeing a man with an assault rifle and a bulletproof vest walking around.
“The woman who identified herself as Sturgeon’s mother asked during the call if she could go to the bank but was told by the dispatcher that she should not because “there’s a situation going on down there” and “it’s dangerous.” “You’ve had calls from other people, so he’s already there?” asked the mother with shock in her voice.
The audio releases came hours before an interfaith vigil at the Muhammad Ali Centre to remember the victims and allow the public to offer prayers for the injured. “This is a very tough time for our city, and we were not meant to go through tough times alone,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a statement.
The shooting, the 15th mass killing in the US this year, came just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, about 160 miles south of Louisville. The five bank employees killed in the shooting were Joshua Barrick, 40, a senior vice president; Deana Eckert, 57, an executive administrative officer; Tommy Elliott, 63, also a senior vice president; Juliana Farmer, 45, a loan analyst; and Jim Tutt Jr, 64, a commercial real estate market executive.
