911 calls show chaotic moments during Kentucky bank shooting

Apr 12, 2023 | 12:12 PM

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Frantic calls from witnesses reporting a mass shooting at a Louisville bank were released Wednesday by police — including from a woman who was on a virtual meeting and saw the shooter, as well as one from the man’s mother, who told a 911 operator that her son “currently has a gun and is heading toward” the bank.

“I need your help. He’s never hurt anyone, he’s a good kid,” said the woman, who identified herself as the gunman’s mother.

None of the callers are identified by name and other information is edited out of the calls, but the first call that came in was from a woman who was on a video call inside the bank. She screams and cries throughout the four-minute call and says there is an active shooter at the downtown branch of the bank.

“I just watched it on a Teams meeting,” she says. “We were having a board meeting. With our commercial (lending) team.”

“We heard multiple shots and everybody started saying, ’Oh my God and then he came into the board room.”

Bank employee Connor Sturgeon, 25, used an AR-15 assault-style rifle in the attack Monday at Old National Bank, where he killed five coworkers while livestreaming before police fatally shot him. Eight others were injured, including a police officer who was shot in the head and remains hospitalized in critical condition.

After the first call, others began streaming in. One of the callers says she’s calling from within the building as numerous gunshots are heard in the background.

“I’m in a closet hiding,” the caller says. She says that people have been shot and gives a description of the shooting, saying she knows the shooter. “He works with us.”

“How long will it be before they get here?” she whispers and the dispatcher tells her that authorities are on the way and advises her to keep quiet.

Asked what kind of injuries there were, the caller replies: “I don’t know. I just saw a lot of blood.”

Dylan Lovan And Rebecca Reynolds (), The Associated Press