‘We Started Hearing Shooting’: Guv’s Friend Among 5 Killed in Louisville Bank Massacre

Five people were killed and eight more injured, including three police officers, when a Kentucky bank employee shot up his workplace in downtown Louisville on Monday morning, authorities said.

Calls first came in at about 8:38 a.m. for an active shooter at a multi-story office complex known as the Old National Bank Building on East Main Street, police said. Officers were on the scene within three minutes, Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said.

Gwinn-Villaroel identified the suspect as Connor Sturgeon, a 23-year-old white man who was employed by the bank. Sturgeon was “neutralized” after exchanging gunfire with police. It’s unclear if he was killed by police or by self-inflicted gunshots.

His victims were identified as Old National Bank’s senior vice president Tommy Elliott, 63, market executive Jim Tutt, 64, senior vice president of commercial real estate Josh Barrick, 40, and commercial banking agent Juliana Farmer, 57.

Police later announced that a fifth victim, 57-year-old Deanna Eckert, died hours after being shot during the bloody incident.

David McArthur, a spokesperson for UofL Health, told The Daily Beast the hospital had treated nine victims, including two cops. Three of those patients were later discharged. One injured officer was taken into surgery and the other injuries appeared to be non-critical, a police spokesperson said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear revealed Elliott was one of his “very close” friends. He said two other friends had been hospitalized.

“My [attorney general] campaign is out of that building and virtually everyone in it, that’s my bank,” he said at a press briefing, while appearing to fight back tears. “There are a lot of people who are hurting today.”

Tammy Madigan, who works for a commercial real estate company on the fifth floor of the bank building, told The Daily Beast by phone that it was “probably my worst Monday ever.”

There were six people already in the office when one of their colleagues arrived and saw somebody walk into the building with guns, according to Madigan. Spooked, the colleague called his co-workers upstairs and warned everyone not to leave, she said. So Madigan and her colleagues called 911, then locked all the doors. Police were on the scene within five minutes, she estimated.

“But before the police got there, we started hearing shooting,” she told The Daily Beast once she’d arrived back home. “The bathrooms on our floor have keycode entry, so it was probably the safest place we could think of to hide. So the six of us went into the men’s room, turned off all the sound on our phones, tried to be as quiet as we could.”

The shooting continued for about another five minutes, and Madigan said she and the others heard voices saying they were the police, trying to get them to come out.

“But we didn’t know if it was really the police or the shooter trying to get us to come out,” Madigan continued.

Once the police convinced Madigan and the others they were for real, officers evacuated everyone from the premises.

“When the elevator door opened, the shooter was just laying there, dead,” Madigan said. “There was lots of glass all over. One of the girls in my office was just breaking down. One of the guys was pushing the button to close the doors, so the police let us go out through the basement, and then took us over to Slugger Field, where they began taking statements from everybody in the building. I bet there were 100 cops there, I don’t know how many shooters were involved but I know they got one.”

While they were still huddled in the men’s room, Madigan said she heard police outside the door running while yelling, “Blue down! Blue down!”—presumably in response to the injured officers.

Videos of the incident shared on social media appeared to show officers in the area yelling at drivers to get out of their cars while warning of an “active shooter.” Sirens and what sounds like gunshots can be heard in the footage.

Col. Humphrey confirmed the number of casualties and confirmed a “lone shooter” was responsible.

Madigan’s husband, Darren, said he was hoping this day would never come. However, he said he knew it was probably just a matter of time.

“We’re having daily mass shootings now, and my wife and I have been saying, ‘When are we going to have one close to us?’” he told The Daily Beast. “And today there was one in the building where she works.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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