911 calls of Louisville Old National Bank shooting paint bleak picture inside the building
The mass shooting at downtown Louisville's Old National Bank on Monday was first reported to police at 8:36 a.m. by a caller who witnessed it while tuned into a virtual meeting from a different location.
"Oh my God, there's an active shooter there," she told the operator, screaming as she watched the situation unfold on the other side of the city. "... I just watched it on a Teams meeting."
That dispatch was one of a dozen 911 calls released Wednesday from witnesses inside and outside the bank, including a call from the shooter's mother. She heard from her son's roommate that "he apparently left a note," but did not say what was written, and repeatedly told the Louisville Metro Police 911 operator her son − who bought the AR-15 used in the shooting less than a week earlier − did not own guns.
She was shaking as she got in her car to drive toward the bank but stopped when the operator calmly asked her not to head to the location because other dispatchers had been told the scene on Main Street was already dangerous.
"You've had calls from other people? So he's already there?" she asked the dispatcher. The call ended seconds later.
Warning: This audio is graphic
Listen: First batch of 911 calls from Monday's shooting at Old National Bank
More audio: Second batch of 911 calls from Monday's shooting at Old National Bank
One woman called 911 from a conference room closet inside the bank; gunshots can be heard in the background. She spent more than 10 minutes pleading for police to hurry to the scene before she was found by first responders.
"I don't know," the woman whispered when asked what kind of injuries she'd seen, noting eight or nine people had been shot. "I just saw a lot of blood."
The calls were released Wednesday afternoon by the city, a little more than 48 hours after the incident.
They are graphic and disturbing but offer the closest look yet at what happened inside the building during the shooting, the worst in Louisville since 1989.
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A total of six people died, including the shooter, who was shot by an LMPD officer who reached the scene within minutes. Eight others were injured. Officer Nickolas Wilt, who was shot in the head, remained in critical condition Wednesday.
Killed in the shooting were Josh Barrick, 40; Deana Eckert, 57; Tommy Elliott, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and Jim Tutt Jr., 64. All were Old National Bank employees.
The family of the shooter, identified as Connor Sturgeon, released a statement late Tuesday pledging to cooperate with law enforcement and expressing "anguish, and horror at the unthinkable harm our son Connor inflicted on innocent people, their families, and the entire Louisville community."
The identities of the callers were not listed in the release and other personal information is redacted in the audio.
LMPD previously said officers were dispatched at 8:38 a.m., and timestamps released with the calls note the first report came in two minutes earlier. The shooter's mother called at 8:41 a.m.
“Transparency is important – even more so in times of crisis," Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a press release with the audio.
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One caller who phoned police at 9 a.m. said they'd seen a man with "some type of like, assault rifle, walking around in like, a bulletproof vest" while they were at a Main Street stoplight a few minutes earlier. He was jogging around "like he was trying to get somewhere in a hurry," they said.
Police also released radio transmissions from Monday morning.
Much of that audio was recorded after the shooter was killed, with dispatchers alerting officers to different staging areas and directing them where to bring victims and witnesses, launching the first steps of the investigation. Within 25 minutes of the shooting, a dispatcher reads off the shooter's address, calling police to secure the location.
Reporter Madeline Mitchell contributed. Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville shooting 911 calls paint bleak picture at Old National Bank
