(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Tragedy overtook a routine Monday morning in downtown Louisville, after a shooter opened fire on bank employees and responding police officers, killing four and injuring nine.
Troy Haste, an account executive with Old National Bank, said he was in a conference room on the first floor of the Preston Pointe building for a meeting when the shooting began.
“We heard a click, and the lady next to me turned around and said ‘What the heck’ and he just started shooting,” Haste told ABC’s affiliate station WHAS.
Hiding in a break room at one point, Haste got a brief glimpse of the shooter before running out of the building. Visibly shaken when speaking to a local reporter, Haste pulled the extra fabric near the shoulder of his plaid dress shirt to see blood from the incident.
“Whoever’s next to me got shot, bloods on me from it,” he said.
Louisville police received the first call about the shooting around 8:30 a.m. on Monday, learning from eyewitnesses that the gunman was armed with a long rifle. Within three minutes, officers arrived at the scene to encounter the shooter, who then began firing at law enforcement. By the time the shooter was killed, four victims died and nine were injured, including two responding police officers. Three of the victims remain in critical condition, including a police officer who had just graduated from the police academy in March.
At a press conference on Monday, Louisville Metro Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said the shooter was a former employee of the bank he targeted.
Located on the first floor of the 100,000 square-foot office building in downtown Louisville and abutting a professional baseball stadium, Old National Bank shared the modern Preston Pointe building with multiple other businesses.
Craig Collins, a real estate broker with Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Kentucky, told WHAS that he was in the garage of the building when he heard the gunfire around 8:42 a.m.
“I just walked out of the elevator into the garage, and then I heard multiple shots again,” he said. “I ran outside. There were two police officers here on Preston they said run for cover.”
Daylin Riggs had just walked by the conference room “where everyone was” while running an errand. Hearing loud noises coming off an elevator, he told WHAS that he originally thought the commotion was construction before learning about the shooter.
“I got up there, and the guy was like, ‘Run there’s a shooter,’” he said.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the Louisville Police Department has established a family reunification center for the victims of the incident.
“The safety of Old National Bank employees and everyone we serve in our banking center locations is paramount,” Old National CEO Jim Ryan wrote in a statement. “As we await more details, we are deploying employee assistance support and keeping everyone affected by this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.”
The Louisville shooting marks the 15th mass shooting in the first 10 days of April, according to the National Gun Violence archive.
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