Louisville Bank Shooter Purchased Gun Legally A Week Ago, Police Say

The man who opened fire at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday purchased the weapon legally a week ago, police said at a press conference Tuesday.

Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said the shooter bought an AR-15 rifle from a local dealership on April 4 before using it to kill five people and wound eight others at Old National Bank.

The police chief said the 25-year-old worked at the bank and that officers discovered “items” at his residence while executing a search warrant there. She declined to elaborate on what they found, citing the ongoing investigation.

One of the people injured was Nickolas Wilt, a rookie police officer who was shot in the head as he and other officers ran “towards the danger,” said Gwinn-Villaroel.

Wilt remains in critical condition in the University of Louisville ICU, Dr. Jason Smith said at the press conference. Smith grew emotional as he described the scene at the hospital after the shooting, not because of the rarity of the “obviously difficult” event but because of its frequency.

“To be honest with you, we barely had to adjust our operating room schedule to be able to do this,” he told reporters. “That’s how frequently we are having to deal with gun violence in our community.”

“I’m weary,” he continued, his voice breaking. “There’s only so many times you can walk into a room and tell someone they’re not coming home tomorrow.”

“I don’t know what the answers are,” he conceded, as he called on policymakers at the city, state and federal levels “to do something.”

“Doing nothing, which is what we’ve been doing, is not working,” Smith said.