Louisville mass shooting: 911 calls reveal mother knew what was happening
911 caller said the gunman was ‘jogging around like he was trying to get somewhere in a hurry’
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The audio of the 911 calls from the Louisville bank shooting has been released, showing that the mother of gunman Connor Sturgeon knew that he was heading to Old National Bank with a firearm and that staff called in hushed tones asking for help from inside the bank during the ongoing shooting.
Those killed in the shooting include Joshua Barrick, 40; Juliana Farmer, 45; Deana Eckert, 57; Tommy Elliott, 63; and James Tutt, 64.
Ms Eckert was among the nine people taken to hospital on Monday before she passed away. Of the eight people who were shot but are still alive, six had been able to leave the hospital as of Wednesday.
Officer Nicholas Wilt, 26, remains in critical condition after he was shot in the head during the shooting.
The gunman was shot and killed by police.
“Transparency is important – even more so in times of crisis,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a press release on Wednesday. “Today, we are releasing the 911 calls from Monday’s mass shooting. Parts of the audio have been redacted to protect the privacy of those involved.”
The Louisville Metro Police Department released roughly 80 minutes of 911 calls and emergency responder radio transmissions on Wednesday night. Twelve calls were made to 911 to report the shooting.
Here’s what they show:
Mother told of son’s plans by his roommate
The mother of the shooter called 911, saying that she was made aware by her son’s roommate that he was planning to shoot up the bank.
She called to warn the police of Monday’s shooting, saying that Sturgeon was armed and on his way to the bank, but the dispatcher said the shooting had already started by the time the mother’s call came in.
“We don’t even own guns. I don’t know where he would’ve gotten a gun,” the mother told the dispatcher. “I don’t know what to do. I need your help.”
“He has a gun, and he’s heading toward the Old National,” she said, adding that she wasn’t sure what Sturgeon was planning and that she had been made aware of what he was doing by his roommate.
“I’m so sorry. I’m getting details secondhand. I’m learning it now. Oh, lord,” she said.
As the call went on, the mother grew increasingly distraught.
“He’s never hurt anyone. He’s a really good kid,” she told the dispatcher. “He’s nonviolent. He’s never done anything.”
During the call, which lasts three minutes and 23 seconds, the mother asked if she should go to the bank.
“I don’t want you to go to the location,” the dispatcher responded. “We have a situation that’s going on down there right now. We have already had calls from other people.”
‘How long will it be before they get here?’
One of the 12 calls made to 911 reporting the shooting came from a member of staff hiding in a closet near a conference room on the bank’s first floor. The call lasted almost 11 minutes, during which the caller whispered “I can hear gunshots” as gunfire can be heard in the background.
“I’m in a closet hiding,” she says in the call, adding that people have been shot and that she knows who the shooter is, saying “He works with us”.
The woman shouted “help!” on a number of occasions.
“Stay quiet,” the operator told the caller amid the sounds of gunfire. “We’ve got everybody coming, OK?”
The dispatcher said police were en route.
“I know, but how long?” the caller said quietly. “How long will it be before they get here?”
The call stayed on the line with the dispatcher until Sturgeon was killed by police.
Dispatcher told caller to stop yelling
A caller inside the bank said he had issues reaching the police. The dispatcher asked him to stop yelling.
“Yeah, because you won’t … answer,” the caller responded.
Caller saw colleagues killed on video call
Another one of those who called 911 to report the shooting was a woman who was taking part virtually in the bank staff’s morning meeting using Microsoft Teams to participate via a video call.
She worked for a different branch of the bank at Brownsboro Road.
Those who made the calls were not identified by police and some information was edited out but the first call came from a woman who was on the video call.
Screaming and crying during the call, which lasted four minutes, she said that there was an active shooter at the bank’s downtown branch.
“How do you know you have an active shooter on site?” the dispatcher asked.
“I just watched it. I just watched it on a Teams meeting. We were having a board meeting,” she said. “I saw somebody on the floor. We heard multiple shots and people started saying ‘Oh my God,’ and then he came into the board room.”
“This video is still going. Oh my god. ... He was in and out of that room very quickly,” she said.
Bank manager Rebecca Buchheit-Sims told CNN that the bank staff were attending their morning meeting before opening for the day when the shooting took place. She said she was taking part in the meeting virtually via the video call.
She told the network that the shooting “happened very quickly”.
“I witnessed people being murdered,” she said. “I don’t know how else to say that.”
‘We’re tucked under a desk right now’
A member of staff inside the building called 911 to understand what was going on.
“We are on the fourth floor. We are trying to get the status of what’s going on,” the caller said. “We’re tucked under a desk right now.”
The dispatcher asked that the staff stay in place as police cleared the building.
“As far as my understanding, the shooter has been taken into custody. As far as my understanding, the scene is safe at the moment,” the operator added.
Caller says gunman fired at least 15 shots into room with more than 12 people
One caller said she was down the street from the bank and that a survivor had entered her building, saying that there had been a shooting at the bank.
In a separate call, a man told the authorities that the gunman had fired at least 15 rounds into a room holding more than a dozen people.
“Mass shooting. He shot probably 15 rounds,” he said. “There were probably 14 people in the room. Please get people there fast, please. And ambulances, please.”
A driver outside the building also called in to report the shooting.
“I saw a man with some type of assault rifle walking around in a bulletproof vest,” she told the dispatcher.
She said he was “jogging around like he was trying to get somewhere in a hurry”.