In a bank in the US state of Kentucky, a 25-year-old man shot himself with an assault rifle, killing five people and injuring others. According to the police in the city of Louisville, the shooter died after an exchange of fire with the police at the scene. The man was said to be an employee of the bank. He filmed his attack on Monday morning and broadcast it live on the Internet, according to local police chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel. “It is particularly tragic to know that this incident was recorded,” she said. However, the police are optimistic that they will be able to take the footage offline. Gwinn-Villaroel said investigations so far indicate that the shooter legally bought his gun less than a week earlier. The police searched his home and found several “items”. She did not initially give any details about the finds.
Louisville Deputy Chief of Police Paul Humphrey said officers arrived at the scene minutes after the 911 call and found the gunman, who was still firing at the time. Two officers were injured in the exchange of fire with him. According to police, there were only nine minutes between the start of the attack and the shooter’s death. Gwinn-Villaroel said officers responded “timely and quickly, and we stopped the threat so there were no more casualties.” It was initially unclear whether the perpetrator was killed by the police or shot himself. According to the police, the victims of his attack were men and women between the ages of 40 and 64. A seriously injured woman died in the hospital on Monday evening (local time). On Tuesday, four other injured were treated in the hospital, two of them in intensive care. Three others have already left the hospital. One of the treating doctors said the medical teams had to use 170 units of blood to treat the gunshot wounds.
Watch the video: Postman delivers package – during police operation.
Police Chief Gwinn-Villaroel said one of the seriously injured was a police officer who was shot in the head during the confrontation with the gunman. It is a 26-year-old man who recently completed police training. “He is in critical but stable condition,” she said. A vigil has been scheduled for Wednesday in Louisville. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said he himself lost one of his closest friends in the attack. “He’s one of the people I spoke to the most and very rarely did we talk about my job. He was an incredible friend,” the governor said of the dead man.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg also said he lost a friend in the attack. He himself survived a shooting last year, Greenberg said. The level of gun violence was “more than appalling”. In Louisville alone, 40 people have died from gun violence this year, and another man was shot dead in the area on Monday, independently of the attack in the bank. “It happens all over America.” And it will continue like this until something is done about the gun law. The United States has long faced massive levels of gun violence. Rampages and deadly shootouts are part of everyday life. Larger attacks of this type regularly lead to discussions about tightening gun laws – so far without any success. Firearms are readily available in the US. After Monday’s shooting, US President Joe Biden once again called for tightening of gun laws in the country. “Too many Americans are paying the price of inaction with their lives,” he said Monday. “When will Republicans in Congress act to protect our communities?”
His predecessors have repeatedly failed in recent years in attempts to persuade the parliament, which is riddled with party-political rifts, to ban assault rifles and take other protective measures. In order to implement them, Biden and his Democrats would have to rely on the willingness of Republicans in Congress to cooperate – but that is not in sight on this issue. A ban on assault rifles was passed in the USA in the 1990s, but this expired again after ten years. Efforts for stricter gun laws and a new version of such a ban have been in vain for many years – mainly because Republicans are opposed. And because the gun lobby, most notably the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), vehemently opposes any attempt to tighten gun control.
