Parents of Louisville bank shooter are ‘heartbroken’ and ‘sorry,’ say son shouldn’t have been able to buy gun
The parents of Louisville bank shooter Connor Sturgeon acknowledged their son had struggles with mental health, but believed them to be under control not long before he shot and killed five people at his place of work.
Sturgeon was an employee at Old National Bank on East Main Street, where he opened fire on his co-workers with an AR-15 during a board meeting on April 10. He wounded eight people and killed five more, who have since been identified as Josh Barrick, 40; Deana Eckert, 57; Tommy Elliott, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and Jim Tutt, 64.
Sturgeon’s parents, Todd and Lisa, said they last saw him on Easter, just one day before the massacre. They told NBC News they had “no clue” what their son had planned, emphasizing that they never believed him to be capable of such violence.
“We are so sorry. We are heartbroken,” Lisa Sturgeon told Savannah Guthrie in an exclusive “TODAY” show interview on Thursday. “We wish we could undo it, but we know we can’t.”
Todd Sturgeon added that even they are still unsure what exactly caused the workplace shooting. “I’m afraid that whatever we come up with as the cause still isn’t going to make sense,” he said.
About a year before the carnage, Connor started struggling with anxiety and even attempted suicide. His mother noted that he eventually started seeing a psychiatrist and taking medication for his issues, but that he suffered a panic attack just days ahead of the bank violence.
Still, his parents believed he was “coming out of the crisis.”
The Sturgeons noted that Connor shouldn’t have been able to buy a rifle because of his mental state. They have been told that their son was able to walk into the store and walk out with a weapon and ammunition within 40 minutes — despite the fact that he’d been seeing two mental health professionals, Todd Sturgeon said.
“If there had been a delay or something of that nature, that would have been helpful,” Lisa Sturgeon said.
His father added: “We have really smart people in this country and there’s no reason why we can’t find a solution to this problem.”
