Louisville mayor says gun used in deadly bank shooting will be auctioned off under Kentucky law
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced that the gun used in Monday's mass shooting will be sold at auction as Kentucky law prevents law enforcement from destroying confiscated firearms, even when they're used in crimes.
Greenburg said in a press conference that all confiscated firearms not kept for official use will be sold at auction to licensed dealers. Under state law, the Kentucky State Police will conduct the auction and keep 20% of the sale proceeds for departmental use. The rest of the proceeds will be given to the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security.
The mayor, who survived a workplace shooting, reported that 40 people in the city have died due to gun violence this year which now includes the five people who were killed Monday.
Police on Tuesday released officer bodycam footage of the shooting at an Old National Bank branch in Louisville, where 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, a bank employee, was armed with a semi-automatic AR-15-style weapon when he opened fire inside the bank. He was killed during an exchange of gunfire with officers. Two officers were shot and wounded while trying to approach the lobby with rifles, but they were able to engage and kill the shooter.
Police searched the shooter's home but did not reveal what they found. A motive remains unknown.
A memorial outside the bank continues to grow in honor of the victims, who have been identified as 40-year-old Joshua Barrick, 63-year-old Thomas Elliot, 64-year-old James Tutt, 57-year-old Deana Eckert and 45-year-old Juliana Farmer.
"I want justice for my mother. I want them to do something about these guns," Farmer's daughter, Alia Chambers, said.
Alia and Jyeon Chambers, Farmer's son, said their mother had started her job at the bank two weeks before the shooting. She recently moved to Louisville to help Chambers raise her four children.
"She didn't have to come. But she came for me. That's why I'm so hurt," said Alia Chambers.
Farmer's car now sits in the same spot where she left it the morning of the shooting, but to her children, her memory will always remain.
"My mom was the sweetest person, loving person, a smile that lit up the room," Alia Chambers said.
"You would never forget it," Jyeon Chambers said.
"You would never forget that smile. And one thing I can say about my momma: She was happy. She left here happy," Alia Chambers said.
