Louisville mass shooting: Bank manager saw Connor Sturgeon gun down co-workers during Microsoft Teams session
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: A manager at the Old National Bank recalled the horror as she witnessed her co-workers being gunned down by Connor Sturgeon during a Microsoft Teams session. The 25-year-old Sturgeon stormed into the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky's downtown, on Monday, April 10, and carried out the attack with an AR-15-style assault rifle. The gunfire killed five and injured nine others, including two cops. Sturgeon, an ex-employee at the bank, was shot during a brief police shootout and pronounced dead at the scene.
Bank manager Rebecca Buchheit-Sims witnessed the shooting over a computer screen as she was on a video call with a group of colleagues who were in the first-floor conference room of the bank. Rebecca noted that the meeting was in full flow when Sturgeon burst into the room and opened fire. “I witnessed people being murdered. I don’t know how else to say that,” she told CNN, adding, “I’m just as much in shock and disbelief and was in disbelief as I watched it unravel.”
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'Monotone personality'
Buchheit-Sims never worked with Sturgeon but she knew him because his father coaches her son’s high school basketball team. The bank manager claimed she had never seen any signs of violence or threats. “His temperament is pretty low-key. I’ve never seen the kid get angry or upset about anything in public. He was pretty much just relaxed,” she said, describing him as “extremely intelligent” and with “just kind of a monotone personality.” Sturgeon, who broadcast the atrocity live, also wrote a letter to his parents announcing his intention to carry it out after being fired from the bank, according to Daily Mail.
The victims of the shooting have been identified as Thomas Elliott, 63, a close friend of the governor of Kentucky, and four other bank employees: Joshua Barrick, 40, Juliana Farmer, 45, James Tutt, 64, and 57-year-old Deana Eckert. Rookie police officer Nickolas Wilt, 26, was also shot in the head and remains in critical condition. He started work on March 31. The second injured officer has not been named. Sturgeon’s friend and colleague, Troy Haste, was also present in the conference room when he opened fire but managed to survive the ordeal.
'Their blood's on me'
"He just started firing. I didn't see his face. We were in the conference room. Whoever was next to me got shot, their blood's on me. He just started shooting. He had a long assault rifle," a terrified Haste told WHAS 1. "We have a break room. I got in there, shut the door for a second, and then I was looking around opening the door to see where he was at, and I could see him still shooting." Sturgeon’s friends said they would "never have expected" him capable of carrying out such an attack.