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Louisville shooter’s mom makes frantic call to 911, learns he’s already at the bank: ‘He’s never hurt anyone’

April 13, 2023 | | Print Article

As Connor Sturgeon set out from his Louisville, Kentucky, home on Monday, his mother, Lisa, placed a heartbreaking call to 911, warning authorities that her son “currently has a gun and is heading toward the Old National” bank, where he would ultimately kill five people before being fatally wounded by police.

“He’s never hurt anyone. He’s a really good kid. Please don’t punish him…” the frantic mother pleaded. “He’s non-violent. He’s never done anything wrong.”


(Video: YouTube)

Authorities released the calls to 911 on Wednesday. Sadly, they came too late.

By the time Lisa dialed the emergency line, reports of gunfire at the bank were already coming in.

Sturgeon, a bank employee, live-streamed the massacre on social media. In addition to the five victims he killed, eight people were injured, including a police officer who took a shot to the head and remains in critical condition, according to the Daily Mail.

Hearing that the 911 switchboard was already lighting up over the incident, the panicked mom had to be convinced to stay at home.

“So he’s already there?” Lisa asked the operator. “I’m sorry, I’m trying to get to my car… I’m shaking.”

“We have a situation that is going on down there right now,” the operator said. “We’ve already had calls from other people, and I do not need you to go to the location at this time, OK? It’s dangerous there.”

Indeed, at the time of the call — 8:41 a.m. — police were already confronting her mentally disturbed son.

According to Lisa, a note from Connor was found by his roommate, Dallas Whalen. It was Whalen who called her and alerted her to the situation.

“I don’t know where he would have gotten a gun,” Lisa told the operator. “He must’ve gotten it from his girlfriend or something.”

“I think maybe his girlfriend may have had a gun,” she later said. “I don’t know, maybe he saw them.”

Authorities also released several of the 911 calls made by witnesses to the shooting.

WARNING: GRAPHIC


(Video: YouTube)

One was placed by a distraught woman from another branch who was on a video call with the Louisville bank.

“There’s an active shooter there,” she cried.

“I just watched it on a Teams meeting,” she stated. “We were having a board meeting. With our commercial (lending) team.”

“I saw somebody on the floor. We heard multiple shots and everybody started saying, ‘Oh my God’ and then he came into the board room,” she said.

Another terrified caller said she was in the bank, “hiding.” Gunshots could be heard in the background.

“I’m in a closet hiding,” she told the operator, adding that the shooter “works with us.”

“How long will it be before they get here?” she asked the dispatcher about incoming help.

When asked about potential injuries, the caller said, “I don’t know. I just saw a lot of blood.”

The chilling calls, along with emergency responder radio traffic, were released by authorities in the name of “transparency,” according to Mayor Craig Greenberg.

“Transparency is important, even more so in times of crisis,” he said on Wednesday, according to the Daily Mail. “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.”

According to a source close to the Sturgeon family, Connor was receiving professional treatment for depression and anxiety, but, to the family’s knowledge, he had no anger issues and no motive to kill his coworkers.

“That’s the amazing thing about this,” the source told DailyMail.com. “He was in the care of health professionals. There’s a history of depression and anxiety, but no anger.”

“That’s the piece of this puzzle that is the hardest to understand for the family,” the source added.

While police had initially reported that Connor had been fired, the source said that was news to the shooter’s family.

“The family did not know there was anything awry with his employment status,” the source stressed. “So in the first press conference when they said he’d been fired, the family was very upset about that. I think authorities kind of walked that back a little bit yesterday, saying he was not fired. But there’s still this narrative out there about him being told he was going to be fired, and the family is trying to seek clarity on that because they’re unaware of that.”

As BizPac Review previously reported, Connor’s family released a statement on Tuesday in which they acknowledged their son’s mental health challenges.

https://twitter.com/BIZPACReview/status/1646400612341538818?s=20

“While Connor, like many of his contemporaries, had mental health challenges which we, as a family, were actively addressing, there were never any warning signs or indications he was capable of this shocking act,” the statement read. “While we have many unanswered questions, we will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement officials and do all we can to aid everyone in understanding why and how this happened.”

“No words can express our sorrow, anguish, and horror at the unthinkable harm our son Connor inflicted on innocent people, their families, and the entire Louisville community,” the family said. “We mourn their loss and that of our son, Connor. We pray for everyone traumatized by his senseless acts of violence and are deeply grateful for the bravery and heroism of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department.”

 

Melissa Fine
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