A bank manager watched in horror as she witnessed her colleagues being gunned down in real-time inside a bank conference room in Louisville, Kentucky while they were on a work conference call. Five people have so far been pronounced dead and another eight have been left injured following the brutal mass shooting in Louisville on Monday.
Rebecca Buchheit-Sims, the manager of Old National Bank, saw the whole ordeal unfold as she was in a Microsoft Teams meeting with her colleagues at the time.
She said everything “happened very quickly” and she was left in “shock” and “disbelief” as she watched ex-employee Connor Sturgeon fire bullets into her co-workers
She told CNN in a shocking interview: “Shortly after the meeting started, the gunman, which is an employee, started shooting up the conference room.”
“I witnessed people being murdered. I don’t know how else to say that.
“I’m just as much in shock and disbelief and was in disbelief as I watched it unravel.”
The bank manager didn’t directly work with the gunman but knew him because his father was her son’s high school basketball coach.
She described the killer as someone with “just kind of a monotone personality”.
Buchheit-Sims added: “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.”
READ MORE: Louisville shooter told friend ‘he’d shoot up bank’ before massacre
While the bank manager did not know about Sturgeon having any grievances or previously making any threats, she described him as “extremely intelligent”.
But Buchheit-Sims was not the only one who witnessed the horrific act as it happened as the killer livestreamed the attack on Instagram.
LMPD interim chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said: “I will say this, that the suspect was live streaming. And unfortunately, that’s tragic. To know that that incident was out there and captured.”
She added that police were hoping to have Instagram removed the video from its platform. According to a source quoted by CNN, the footage has now been taken down and is in police hands.
The shooting began at the Old National Bank on East Main Street in Louisville, Kentucky, just after 8.30am – about 30 minutes before the building opened to the public.
Officers appeared at the scene within three minutes of being dispatched and arrived as the shooter was still firing, according to Louisville Metro Police Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey.
Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said Sturgeon fired at responding officers, who returned fire in order to “stop that threat”, killing the 23-year-old in the shootout.
The five victims are Joshua Barrick, 40, Thomas Elliot, 63, Juliana Farmer, 45, James Tutt, 64 and Deanna Eckert, 57.
Sturgeon joined Old National Bank bank full-time in 2021 after three consecutive summer internships, but was reportedly let go.
During a news conference, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear was visibly emotional as he held back tears.
He said: “This is awful. I have a very close friend that didn’t make it today. One is at the hospital and I hope he is going to make it through.
“When we talk about praying, I hope people will, for those that we are hoping can make it through the surgeries they are going through.
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