Connor Sturgeon was the gunman who killed five people and wounded at least eight others in a shooting at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky on April 10, 2023, Louisville police said at a press conference. Police said the 23-year-old Sturgeon was a bank employee. He is also dead, according to police.
Sturgeon was live-streaming video on Instagram at the time of the shooting, police said at a press conference. The video and the account belonging to Sturgeon were taken down by Instagram. It was not immediately clear how long the live video was being streamed on Instagram and whether any clips were posted elsewhere online. Police and Old National Bank have not confirmed Sturgeon’s employment status at the time of the shooting.
The victims killed in the shooting have been identified as Joshua Barrick, 40; Thomas Elliott, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and James Tutt, 64. Louisville Metro Police Officer Nickolas Wilt was wounded and is in critical condition, police said. The four victims all worked at Old National Bank along with the shooter, according to their LinkedIn profiles. The wounded victims other than the officers also worked at the bank, police said. Several hours after their news conference, Louisville police confirmed that a fifth victim had died – Deana Eckert, 57.
Learn about the victims here.
LinkedInSome of the Louisville victims.
The Louisville Metropolitan Police Department said officers responded to calls of an active shooter at the downtown bank, in the 300 block of East Main Street, about 8:30 a.m. The “lone shooter” was found killed along with four other victims, according to police.
According to Louisville Interim Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, Officer Nick Wilt is 26 and graduated from the police academy in March 2023. Wilt was shot in the head, Gwinn-Villaroel said, and underwent brain surgery. He is in critical but stable condition. Three of the injured victims, including Wilt, are in critical condition at the University of Louisville Hospital, the interim chief said at the press conference. Three others are in non-critical condition and three were treated and released, she said.
Officer Nickolas Wilt, a new officer to the LMPD, ran towards the gunfire today to save lives. He remains in critical condition after being shot in the head.
Gwinn-Villaroel said officers responded to the scene in three minutes. “The suspect shot at officers, we then returned fire and stopped that threat. The suspect is deceased,” she said. Along with Wilt, two other officers were injured as they exchanged gunfire with the suspect, Gwinn-Villaroel said. One was grazed with a bullet in his left side and the other suffered a minor elbow injury, she said.
Gwinn-Villaroel said, “I have so much respect for the families because they were still present and were very appreciative of what was done and how LMPD responded today. And they were actually embracing me as I was embracing them. But let me say this, the evil that took place today, we shouldn’t hear the tears that were coming out from these families. And that right there sticks because they are weeping because someone decided that they wanted to take life today.”
Here’s what you need to know about Louisville Old National Bank shooting suspect Connor Sturgeon:
1. Connor Sturgeon Called a Friend & Said He Was Going to ‘Kill Everyone at the Bank,’ According to Police Scanner Audio
BREAKING: Police confirm ‘multiple casualties’ following active shooter situation in downtown Louisville, Kentucky
Police scanner audio, obtained by Heavy through Broadcastify, revealed details of what officers were told as they responded to the scene. A dispatcher said preliminarily to officers that a caller said “eight to nine people were shot” at the bank, and the suspect was a white male with dark pants.
Deputy Police Chief Paul Humphrey said at a press conference that the “heroic response” from officers “absolutely saved lives.”
The dispatcher said in the audio that the suspect was a 25-year-old white male who called a friend and left a voicemail saying he was going to “kill everyone at the bank” because he was feeling suicidal. Connor Sturgeon’s name was mentioned as the suspect, according to the audio obtained by Heavy. The suspect was said to be 6-foot-4, according to the scanner audio.
The mother and brother of the shooter approached police at the scene outside the bank, a police officer told the dispatcher on the scanner audio obtained by Heavy. The responding officers described a chaotic scene, with an “officer down right in front of the bank.” The responding officers reported hearing shots fired as they arrived. At one point during the audio, shots can be heard in the background.
According to the scanner audio, officers feared being “ambushed” as they tried to reach the wounded officer, and they found multiple people shot in a conference room. Another person suffered a leg wound in a bathroom inside the bank, and employees were hiding in a vault, dispatch audio indicated.
According to LinkedIn profiles belonging to the victims, Thomas “Tommy” Elliott, was a senior vice president at Old National Bank. Juliana Farmer worked as a commercial banking agent, Joshua Barrick was a senior vice president in the bank’s commercial real estate group and James Tutt was a market executive.
2. Connor Sturgeon, Who Is Accused of Entering the Bank With an AR-15-Style Rifle, Was a Syndications Associate & Portfolio Banker at Old National Bank
Connor Sturgeon/LinkedInConnor Sturgeon is the suspect in the shooting at Old National Bank, police said.
On a now-deleted LinkedIn profile, Connor Sturgeon wrote, “I am a Syndications Associate and Portfolio Banker with Old National Bank in Louisville following completion of the ONB Commercial Banking Development Training Program in April 2022. I am certified in the RMA Lending Decision Process, hold a Master’s in Finance from the University of Alabama, and am on the Young Professionals board for Junior Achievement of Kentuckiana.”
Sturgeon began working as a commercial development professional at the bank in June 2021 and moved into his most recent role in April 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile
“Handled multiple roles at once, including managing a business banking portfolio, building digital infrastructure for new syndications team, and meeting with prospective and existing clients of all sizes,” he wrote.
A federal law enforcement source told CNN that Sturgeon used an “AR-15-style rifle.”
3. Connor Sturgeon Graduated From the University of Alabama in 2020 & Interned at the Bank While in College
Lisa Sturgeon/FacebookConnor Sturgeon in a photo posted on his mother’s Facebook page.
Sturgeon was also an intern at the bank from May 2018 to August 2020, working at the bank “for 3 consecutive summers,” while he was in college, according to his LinkedIn profile.
His LinkedIn page said he had a master’s degree in finance from the University of Alabama, Manderson Graduate School of Business and a degree in finance and economics from the University of Alabama. Sturgeon studied at Alabama from 2016 to 2020 and also obtained his master’s degree in 2020, according to his LinkedIn. He highlighted a skill in “teamwork.” He expressed an interest in LinkedIn on a young professionals group in Louisville.
Sturgeon wrote on LinkedIn in 2022 about taking part in the Focus Louisville program, “Can’t thank the folks at Leadership Louisville enough for their work the past few days. Focus was an eye-opening experience about many of the issues around Louisville and the people who are working to solve them. One of the biggest takeaways was the volume of people who are working to have a positive impact, at places like Junior Achievement, Goodwill, and JCTC. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn, and for meeting so many great people as both speakers and classmates.”
4. Sturgeon Went to Floyd Central High School in Indiana, Where His Father Was the School’s Basketball Coach
According to Sturgeon’s mother’s Facebook page, Sturgeon attended Floyd Central High School, about 10 miles northwest of Louisville in southern Indiana. His father, Todd Sturgeon, was the boys basketball coach at the school until 2022 and coached Connor Sturgeon when he was a student at the school, according to the suspect’s mom’s Facebook page. He was named “Mr. Floyd Central 2016,” according to a tweet from the high school’s newspaper.
Todd Sturgeon became the coach at Floyd Central in 2014, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. He previously coached at the University of Indianapolis. According to the Courier-Journal, Sturgeon was a 6-foot-4 sophomore at the high school when his father took the job. His younger brother was in middle school at the time.
Todd Sturgeon told the newspaper, “My wife said you were always looking for a sign, whether it was the right time to do something, and this time it was a sledgehammer to the head. It’s the opportunities to coach my own sons. I have a special interest in getting the program turned around.”
A classmate told The Daily Beast that Sturgeon was popular and a star athlete and always wore a helmet while playing basketball because of concussions he suffered. “The big thing I keep going back to is that in the first year of high school, we played football together in eighth grade, he was out most of the year because he had multiple concussions. Then he had a couple more in high school. I’m not saying it’s the cause, but I always think back to that. … There were times I’d wonder, will this catch up with him? But never in this way. He’s the last person I’d expect would do this,” the classmate told The Daily Beast.
Sturgeon’s father retweeted a video of San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich talking about gun control the day before the shooting in Louisville. Todd Sturgeon retweeted a video clip from reporter Tom Orsborn with the caption, “Pop used final 10 minutes of his pre-game presser to slam ‘cowardly, oblivious legislators’ for their inaction on gun control in wake of the mass shootings that have plagued America. Their inaction, he said, has contributed to making the U.S. the ‘laughingstock’ of the world.”
5. Connor Sturgeon, Who Does Not Appear to Have a Criminal Record, Made Political Posts on Reddit & Twitter, Alongside Posts About Depression
Connor Sturgeon does not appear to have a criminal record or any arrests in Kentucky or Indiana, according to a records search conducted by Heavy. Sturgeon lived in Louisville since 2022. He previously lived with his family in Greenville, Indiana, and in Indianapolis.
Louisville Police confirmed the gun used in the shooting was a rifle but did not provide any other details. Police said they did not have information on how Sturgeon obtained the weapon and whether the gun was purchased legally. They also did not say how much ammunition Sturgeon had at the scene. Local, state and federal law enforcement, including the FBI and ATF, were searching a home on Taylor Avenue in Louisville where public records show Sturgeon lived in Louisville, according to a tweet from WHAS reporter Travis Breese.
#BREAKING
A heavily-armed convoy just arrived in the 1500 Blk. of Taylor Avenue and is about to breach a house. ATF says this is in relation to the mass shooting downtown. @WHAS11 #Louisville
An old Instagram profile for Sturgeon does not appear to have been updated in several years. He wrote in the biography section of his Instagram page, “God and basketball.” A more recent Instagram profile with the username @csturg41 was taken down after the shooting. A Facebook page for Connor Sturgeon could not be located by Heavy and it was not immediately clear whether he had any other active social media pages.
A Twitter profile that belonged to Sturgeon has also been taken down. According to The Daily Beast, the now-deleted Twitter account included, “posts in support of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, as well as some criticism of police violence and of then-President Donald Trump,” alongside tweets about the NBA, sports and messages between friends.
Sturgeon also appears to have been at one-point a frequent poster on Reddit. An account matching his Twitter and Instagram handle, csturg41, was suspended by Reddit after the shooting. Heavy viewed the account prior to its being taken down. Many of the posts, including the most recent, were about sports and video games, including a post three days ago about the Dallas Mavericks missing the NBA playoffs.
Sturgeon also posted political memes, mainly mocking conservatives, former President Donald Trump and Fox News, on several subreddits, including “DankMemes,” “F***thealtright,” and “trollychromosome,” along with “Leopardsatemyface.” He posted a meme in July 2020 on the “f***thealtright” subreddit of a cartoon of a musclar figure responding to someone asking how he got his muscles by saying, “Every time Trump tweets some racist s*** …. I do one push up.”
In 2018, the account replied to a thread in “r/ShowerThoughts” about being severely depressed, writing, “Hey man I understand how rough it is, and how pointless life can seem. Just keep fighting. Keep grinding. In sports and in life, I found that doing everything you can to help out those around you made me feel my best. Cheer on your teammates, help out those closest to you, and keep am eye out for those you care about and everything will work itself out brother.”
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, and Reddit did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the accounts taken down after the shooting. Sturgeon’s family, including his parents and brother, could not be reached for comment by Heavy. This article will be updated as more information about Sturgeon and the shooting become available.
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