(Reuters) – The 23-year-old bank employee who shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville on Monday legally purchased the rifle, Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.
The gun used to carry out the attack was bought at a local dealership on April 4, the chief said.
The gunman was fatally shot at the scene, Louisville police said. It was unclear whether he was slain by police or took his own life. The incident marked the latest in a long series of mass shootings in the U.S.
The shooter was identified by police as Connor Sturgeon, who was employed at the downtown branch of the Old National Bank at the time of the shooting, Gwinn-Villaroel said.
Louisville police responded within minutes to reports of an attacker on Monday morning at the bank office near Slugger Field baseball stadium.
Officers fired at the gunman, who broadcast live video of his attack on social media, police said. He had no prior contact with Louisville police, according to Gwinn-Villaroel.
The dead were identified as Joshua Barrick, 40; Deana Eckert, 57, Thomas Elliot, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and James Tutt, 64.
Two police officers were among the nine wounded. A 26-year-old recent police academy graduate was struck in the head and remained in critical condition on Tuesday, according to Jason Smith, a doctor at University of Louisville hospital.
Sturgeon grew up in southern Indiana, just north of Louisville, according to his mother’s Facebook page. He enrolled at the University of Alabama in 2016 as a business student.
Mass shootings have become commonplace in the United States. There have been 146 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since 2016. Those statistics use the definition of four or more shot or killed, not including the shooter – according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.
(Reporting by Julia Harte; editing by Paul Thomasch)
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