Louisville bank shooting: Here's everything we know about the victims, the suspect and the investigation

The death toll from Monday’s massacre at a bank in downtown Louisville, Ky., rose overnight as authorities continue to investigate what caused a 25-year-old man to carry out a mass shooting that left six people dead, including himself, and eight others wounded in an attack that he livestreamed.

Here’s everything we know about the victims, the suspect and the ongoing investigation.

Body cam footage released

Police on Tuesday released body camera footage from the responding officers who confronted the gunman at Old National Bank.

The edited 9-minute video shows the officers, identified as Cory Galloway and Nickolas Wilt, as they arrived outside the bank three minutes after they received the call from a 911 dispatcher.

“Cover for me,” Galloway tells Wilt after retrieving a rifle from their patrol car. The video then shows the officers walking up the stairs toward the front door when the gunman opens fire on them.

The officers then return fire.

Wilt, a rookie officer who had just recently graduated from the police academy, was shot in the head but survived. (That moment was not shown in the footage.) He was listed in critical but stable condition at University of Louisville Hospital on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Galloway was grazed in the shoulder, police said.

Authorities also released still photos from surveillance cameras inside the bank showing the suspect, armed with an assault-style rifle, walking through a corridor and then standing on what appears to be shattered glass.

The victims

• Joshua Barrick, 40

Joshua Barrick was the senior vice president of commercial real estate banking at Old National and had been in the position for less than a year, according to a LinkedIn profile cited by the Louisville Courier Journal.

Barrick had spent nearly 20 years in the banking sector and was named one of Louisville Business First's 20 People to Know in Banking in 2020.

• Deana Eckert, 57

Deana Eckert succumbed to her injuries on Monday night, hours after she had been hospitalized, Louisville police said.

According to her public Facebook page, Eckert was a graduate of Western Kentucky University and an executive administrative officer at the bank.

USA Today reported that in 2019, Eckert won Old National's ONe Vision Annual Award, nominated by colleagues as someone who exceeded expectations and exemplified the bank’s values.

She was “known for always going the extra mile,” bank chairman and CEO James Ryan said. “She serves selfless labor time to ensure the success of our branch, and she mentors different associates.”

• Thomas Elliott, 63

Thomas Elliott was a senior vice president at Old National Bank. He is survived by his wife and four daughters.

At a press conference following the shooting, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear fought back tears as he remembered Elliott: “Tommy Elliott helped me build my law career,” Beshear said. “Helped me become governor. Gave me advice on being a good dad. One of the people I talked to most in the world, but very rarely were we talking about my job. He was an incredible friend.”

According to the Courier Journal, Elliott also served on the boards for numerous local charities, including Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, Kentucky Educational Television, Little Sisters of the Poor and Kentucky Arts and Craft Foundation.

“He was a son of Louisville,” George Stinson, a local businessman, told the paper. “And he was everybody’s friend.”

• Juliana Farmer, 45

Juliana Farmer, a loan analyst with the bank, was a loving mother and grandmother, the Courier-Journal reported.

In what appears to be her last Facebook post, Farmer announced that she was expecting another grandchild to be born in September.

“My (heart) is so happy!!!” she wrote. “Grand #5 on the way.”

In late March, another Facebook post on the account stated: “It’s up to you to create your own happiness and I’m doing just that!”

According to her uncle, Michael Williams, Farmer had just recently moved to Louisville.

“She told me she was moving to Louisville, [now] she had a great job opportunity,” Williams wrote in a Facebook post cited by the paper. “Now we’re mourning you losing your life at the job. I’m just hurt.”

• James Tutt, 64

James Tutt was a commercial real estate market executive for the southern region at Old National Bank, per his LinkedIn profile. He started with the company in January 2015.

Oldham County Judge Executive David Voegele told the paper that he knew Tutt from his time on the board of the local commercial real estate authority.

“He’s a very high-quality, well-thought-of individual,” Voegele said. “It’s just sickening to hear what’s happened.”

The suspect

Police identified Connor Sturgeon, a 25-year-old employee at Old National Bank, as the deceased shooter in Monday’s massacre.

CBS News reported that Sturgeon spent three summers working as an intern at the bank before becoming a full-time employee in 2021.

Per the Daily Beast, Sturgeon was a former varsity sports star and finance grad.

A former friend and teammate at Floyd Central High School in Floyds Knobs, Ind., described Sturgeon as a star athlete in high school track, football and basketball.

“I know everyone always says this about shooters but I truly would have never expected it to be him,” the teammate, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Daily Beast.

He said Sturgeon “always wore a helmet during basketball games because he had suffered so many concussions.

“The first year of high school, we played football together in eighth grade, he was out most of the year because he had multiple concussions. Then he had a couple more,” the former teammate said. “I’m not saying it’s the cause but I always think back to that. ... There were times I’d wonder, will this catch up with him? But never in this way. He’s the last person I’d expect would do this.”

Sturgeon went on to the University of Alabama to “chase that SEC [Southeastern Conference] frat life,” the former friend said. He graduated there in 2020, the university confirmed.

Gunman legally purchased weapon last week

Authorities have yet to publicly identify a motive for the killings.

At a press conference on Tuesday, police said that Sturgeon legally purchased the weapon used in the shooting — a semi-automatic, AR-15-style rifle — on April 4, just six days before Monday’s massacre.

The revelation sparked calls for stricter gun laws from numerous state and local officials.

Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., who represents the area of the shooting in Congress, said gun violence should transcend politics.

“That is not a political issue,” McGarvey said during Tuesday’s press conference. “But it becomes one when Kentucky Republicans would rather ban books and pronouns and then make Kentucky a sanctuary state for weapons.”

Shooter was livestreaming during killings

On Monday night, Louisville Interim Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel revealed that the gunman was livestreaming on Instagram during his rampage.

“That’s tragic to know that that incident was out there and captured," she said, adding that authorities were working to have it removed.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement that it had “quickly removed the livestream of this tragic incident.”

Witnesses describe horrific scene

USA Today reported that Monday’s shooting occurred inside a conference room during a morning staff meeting.

Rebecca Buchheit-Sims, a bank manager, said that she was attending the meeting virtually and watched her computer screen in horror as Sturgeon opened fire.

“I witnessed people being murdered,” Buchheit-Sims said in an interview with CNN. “I don’t know how else to say that.”

Latest U.S. mass shooting was Kentucky’s first of the year

The bank rampage, the Louisville Courier Journal noted, was Kentucky's first mass shooting of 2023.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which a minimum of four victims are shot, not including any shooter, there have been at least 145 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2023, including Monday’s massacre in Louisville.

It came two weeks after six people, including three children, were killed in a mass shooting at a Nashville Christian elementary school.

On Tuesday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order aimed at strengthening background checks for firearm purchases, the Tennessean reported.

"I’m asking the General Assembly to bring forward an order of protection law," Lee, a Republican, told reporters. "A new, strong order of protection law will provide the broader population cover, safety, from those who are a danger to themselves or the population."

“This is our moment to lead and to give the people of Tennessee what they deserve," he added.