Police say shooter was employee at Louisville bank where he opened fire, identify victims – The Boston Globe

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A 23-year-old used a rifle to kill 4 individuals — together with a detailed good friend of the governor — Monday on the Louisville financial institution the place he was an worker, authorities stated.

The taking pictures, the fifteenth mass killing within the nation this yr, comes simply two weeks after a former scholar killed three kids and three adults at a Christian elementary college in Nashville, Tennessee, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) to the south. That state’s governor and his spouse additionally had buddies killed in that taking pictures.

Police in Louisville arrived as gunshots had been nonetheless being fired inside Previous Nationwide Financial institution and exchanged hearth with the shooter, Louisville Metro Police Division Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey stated at a information convention. It wasn’t clear whether or not the shooter killed himself or was shot by officers.

9 individuals, together with two cops, had been handled for accidents from the taking pictures, College of Louisville Hospital spokeswoman Heather Fountaine stated in an e-mail. One of many officers was in vital situation, she stated. Not less than three sufferers had been discharged.

An emotional Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear stated he misplaced a good friend within the taking pictures within the constructing on East Fundamental Road not removed from the minor league ballpark Louisville Slugger Discipline and Waterfront Park.

“That is terrible,” he stated. “I’ve a really shut good friend who didn’t make it as we speak. … And one who’s on the hospital that I hope goes to make it via.”

It was the second time that Beshear was personally touched by a mass tragedy since changing into governor.

In late 2021, one of many cities devastated by tornadoes that tore via Kentucky was Dawson Springs, the hometown of Beshear’s father, former two-term Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. Andy Beshear incessantly visited Dawson Springs as a boy and has talked emotionally about his father’s hometown.

Beshear spoke because the investigation in Louisville continued and police looked for a motive. Crime scene investigators might be seen marking and photographing quite a few bullet holes within the home windows close to the financial institution’s entrance door.

As a part of the investigation, police descended on a neighborhood about 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of the downtown taking pictures. The road was blocked as federal and native officers talked to residents. One house was cordoned off with warning tape.

“I’m virtually speechless. You see it on the information however not at house,” stated Kami Cooper, 38, who lives within the neighborhood.

A person who fled the constructing throughout the taking pictures informed WHAS-TV that the shooter opened hearth with an extended rifle in a convention room at the back of the constructing’s first ground.

“Whoever was subsequent to me bought shot — blood is on me from it,” he informed the information station, pointing to his shirt. He stated he fled to a break room and shut the door.

Humphrey, the deputy chief, stated the actions of responding cops undoubtedly saved lives.

“It is a tragic occasion,” he stated. “But it surely was it was the heroic response of officers that made positive that no extra individuals had been extra severely injured than what occurred.”

The 15 mass shootings this yr are essentially the most throughout the first 100 days of a calendar yr since 2009, when 16 had occurred by April 10, in response to a mass killings database maintained by The Related Press and USA At this time in partnership with Northeastern College.

Going again to 2006, the primary yr for which knowledge has been compiled, the years with essentially the most mass killings had been 2019 and 2022, with 45 and 42 mass killings recorded throughout all the calendar yr. The tempo in 2009 slowed later within the yr, with 32 mass killings recorded that yr.

___

Database journalist Larry Fenn contributed to this report.