Police release bodycam footage in Louisville bank shooting
Louisville Metro Police released officer bodycam footage in Monday's shooting at a bank in which five people were killed and eight others injured.
The shooting occurred Monday morning inside a branch of Old National Bank. Police said that the 25-year-old shooter, identified as Connor Sturgeon, was a bank employee.
The shooter was killed during an exchange of gunfire with responding officers, police have said, and was armed with a semi-automatic AR-15-style weapon. Police also said he livestreamed the shooting.
In a news briefing Tuesday evening, Louisville Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said that officers were dispatched to the bank at 8:38 a.m., Monday, and arrived within three minutes. Immediately upon their arrival, shots were fired at them from the lobby area of the bank, before they had even exited their vehicles, Humphrey said.
By the time the officers arrived at the scene, the shooter had already killed victims inside the bank, but had returned to the lobby to wait in "ambush," which is when he opened fire on the officers, Humphrey said.
At 8:44 a.m., the shooter again fired at officers, and they returned fire. They entered the building one minute later, at 8:45 a.m., and confirmed that the suspect was no longer a threat.
Two officers were shot and wounded by the suspect as they tried to approach the lobby with rifles, Humphrey said. One of those officers, 26-year-old Nickolas Wilt, was shot in the head, while the other, identified as Corey Galloway, suffered a minor gunshot wound. Police provided footage from both Wilt and Galloway's body cameras.
After being struck, Galloway was forced to hide behind a planter. As more responding officers attempted to go up the lobby stairs and rescue the wounded Wilt, the suspect opened fire on them, prompting them to return fire.
"I don't have an angle," Galloway can be heard saying in the video.
Humphrey explained that the building's non-reflective glass made it difficult for officers to see inside.
"He (the suspect) could see out, where no one could see in," Humphrey said.
While shooting at officers, Humphrey said, the suspect broke out a glass window. It was that action that allowed Galloway to determine the suspect's location, and he was able to shoot and kill the gunman.
"I think I got him down, I think he's down!" Galloway says in the video from behind the planter at the bottom of the stairs.
"Officer Galloway can finally get the vantage point to see where this threat is coming from," Humphrey said. "Once he is able to see the threat, he then engages the threat, shoots and kills the suspect."
Galloway then calls for fellow officers to rescue the wounded Wilt.
"Get the officer out now. Take him down the stairs!" Galloway calls out he runs up the stairs and enters the lobby searching for the gunman.
Humphrey, meanwhile, also praised the actions of Wilt, who graduated from the academy just last month.
"Officer Wilt was a brand new officer," Humphrey said. "He had no experience. He was going based on two things: His training and his character. And you will see that he never hesitates. Even after getting shot at. This young man went back into the line of fire in order to protect others."
Humphrey said that no further civilians were shot once officers arrived on the scene.
"You can see the tension in that video," Humphrey said. "You can understand the stress those officers are going through. The response wasn't perfect, but it was exactly the response we needed. I would love to have either one of those officers ride with me any day."
The five people killed were identified as 40-year-old Joshua Barrick, 63-year-old Thomas Elliot, 64-year-old James Tutt, 57-year-old Deana Eckert and Juliana Farmer.
The shooter had interned at the bank for several summers before becoming a full-time employee in 2021, police said.