By DYLAN LOVAN and CLAIRE GALOFARO (Associated Press)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A shooter at a financial institution in downtown Louisville killed a minimum of 4 individuals — together with two pals of the governor — and wounded a minimum of 9 others Monday, police mentioned. The suspect additionally was useless.
The capturing, the fifteenth mass killing within the nation this yr, comes simply two weeks after a former scholar killed three kids and three adults at a Christian elementary faculty in Nashville, Tennessee, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) to the south. That state’s governor and his spouse additionally had pals killed in that capturing.
Police in Louisville arrived as gunshots had been nonetheless being fired inside Old National Bank and exchanged fireplace with the shooter, Louisville Metro Police Department Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey mentioned at a information convention. It wasn’t clear whether or not the shooter killed himself or was shot by officers.
“We believe this is a lone gunman involved in this that did have a connection to the bank. We’re trying to establish what that connection was to the business, but it appears he was a previous employee,” Humphrey mentioned.
Nine individuals, together with two cops, had been handled for accidents from the capturing, University of Louisville Hospital spokeswoman Heather Fountaine mentioned in an e mail. One of the officers was in essential situation, she mentioned. At least three sufferers had been discharged.
An emotional Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear mentioned he misplaced pals within the capturing within the constructing on East Main Street not removed from the Louisville Slugger Field and Waterfront Park.
“This is awful,” he mentioned. “I have a very close friend who didn’t make it today. And I have another close friend who didn’t, either. And one who’s at the hospital that I hope is going to make it through.”
It was the second time that Beshear was personally touched by a mass tragedy since changing into governor.
In late 2021, one of many cities devastated by tornadoes that tore by Kentucky was Dawson Springs, the hometown of Beshear’s father, former two-term Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. Andy Beshear steadily visited Dawson Springs as a boy and has talked emotionally about his father’s hometown.
Beshear spoke because the investigation in Louisville continued and police looked for a motive. Crime scene investigators might be seen marking and photographing quite a few bullet holes within the home windows close to the financial institution’s entrance door.
A person who fled the constructing in the course of the capturing instructed WHAS-TV that the shooter opened fireplace with a protracted rifle in a convention room at the back of the constructing on the primary flooring.
“Whoever was next to me got shot — blood is on me from it,” he instructed the information station, pointing to his shirt. He mentioned he fled to a break room and shut the door.
Humphrey, the deputy chief, mentioned the actions of responding cops undoubtedly saved lives.
“This is a tragic event,” he mentioned. “But it was it was the heroic response of officers that made sure that no more people were more seriously injured than what happened.”
The 15 mass shootings this yr are probably the most in the course of the first 100 days of a calendar yr since 2009, when 16 had occurred by April 10, in keeping with a mass killings database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
Going again to 2006, the primary yr for which information has been compiled, the years with probably the most mass killings had been 2019 and 2022, with 45 and 42 mass killings recorded throughout the whole calendar yr. The tempo in 2009 slowed later within the yr, with 32 mass killings recorded that yr.
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Database journalist Larry Fenn contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”