On Thursday, five people were killed and several others were injured after a man opened fire inside a Kentucky home and live-streamed the mass shooting on Facebook. The shooting has sent shockwaves throughout the community and raised concerns once again about gun violence in the United States. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what happened during the shooting, the aftermath, and the response from local officials and the public.
On Monday morning, a Louisville bank employee wielding a rifle killed five people at his workplace while livestreaming the attack on Instagram. The police arrived at the scene while the shooting was still ongoing, and eventually killed the perpetrator in an exchange of gunfire. The police department identified the gunman as 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, who was livestreaming the attack. Nine people, including two police officers, were treated for injuries from the Louisville shooting. One of the wounded, a 57-year-old woman named Deana Eckert, later died. One of the wounded officers, 26-year-old Nickolas Wilt, was in critical condition after being shot in the head and undergoing surgery. At least three patients have been discharged.
Kentucky governor Andy Beshear lost one of his closest friends in the shooting — Tommy Elliott, who was in the building not far from the minor league ballpark Louisville Slugger Field and Waterfront Park. In addition to Elliott, Josh Barrick, Jim Tutt and Juliana Farmer were killed in the shooting.
Social media companies have been imposing tougher rules over the past few years to prohibit violent and extremist content, and they have set up systems to remove posts and streams that violate those restrictions. However, shocking material like the Louisville shooting continues to slip through the cracks, prompting politicians and other critics to lash out at the technology industry for slipshod safeguards and moderation policies.
This is the 15th mass killing in the United States this year and comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee. As the investigation in Louisville continues, police are still searching for a motive. Crime scene investigators could be seen marking and photographing numerous bullet holes in the windows near the bank’s front door. As part of the investigation, police have been searching the neighbourhood where Sturgeon lived, about five miles south of the downtown shooting.
Although Deputy police chief Paul Humphrey described the police response as heroic and said that it undoubtedly saved lives, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg called the attack an “evil act of targeted violence”. Meanwhile, Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement that it had “quickly removed the livestream of this tragic incident this morning”.
