five people died and others eight were injuredincluding two police officers, in a shooting that occurred this Monday morning at a bank in the US city of Louisville (Kentucky, USA), the local police reported.
The security body specified on Monday night on its Twitter account that the death toll after the attack increased to five and identified the last victim as Deanna Eckert57 years old.
The four others fatalities, three men and one woman, were between 40 and 67 years old.
The event, the 15th mass killing in the United States so far this year, It comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian school in Nashvilleabout 260 kilometers to the south.
The police arrived as gunshots were still erupting in the Old National Bank and exchanged fire with the attacker, he said at a press conference Paul HumphreyDeputy Chief of the Louisville Police Department.
It was not clear if the attacker committed suicide or if he was killed by the agents.
“We believe that it was an aggressor who acted alone and that had some connection to the bank. We are trying to figure out his relationship to the bank, but it appears he was a former employee,” Humphrey said.
He added that at least eight people were receiving treatment at the hospital, including two policemen, one of whom is in critical condition.
The Governor of Kentucky, andy beshearA visibly shaken, he said he lost friends in the shooting, which occurred on East Main Street, not far from Louisville Slugger Field and Waterfront Park.
“This is terrible”the governor declared. “I have a very close friend who did not survive. And I have another close friend who also didn’t survive. And one that is in the hospital and that I hope he survives ”.
is the second time that Beshear is personally affected by a massive tragedy since he is governor.
In late 2021, one of the towns devastated by tornadoes in Kentucky was Dawson Springs, the hometown of Beshear’s father, former Governor Steve Beshear. Andy Beshear often visited Dawson Springs as a child and spoke emotionally of his father’s hometown.
Humphrey, the deputy police chief, said that the measures taken by the police officers who rushed to the scene undoubtedly saved lives.
“This is a tragic event,” he declared. “But it was the heroic response of the police officers that prevented more people from being seriously injured.”
The 15 mass shootings this year It’s the most for the first 100 days of a year since 2009, when 16 incidents occurred before April 10, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in association with Northeastern University.
Going back to 2006, the first year for which figures are available, the years with the highest number of mass shootings were 2019 and 2022, with 45 and 42 for the entire year, respectively.
Biden’s calls for Congress to reinstate the nationwide ban on assault rifles, which ran from 1994 to 2004, have met with opposition from Republicans, staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms and who have a narrow majority. in the House of Representatives since January.
The stalemate in Washington has come despite public outrage over high-profile massacres like the one at the elementary school. sandy hook in Connecticut in 2012, when 26 people died, including 20 children.
The 2018 murder of 14 students and three staff members in ParklandsIn Florida, he launched a national movement, led by youth, to demand stricter gun controls, but failed to galvanize meaningful action in Congress.
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